Tune into a few performance experts, and it’s easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Elite footballers swear by it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you lack a room for napping or a job that encourages regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“Experts note three key drivers for daytime sleep among most adults,” notes a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, where you are anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to the wish: you have a moment to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for instance, for caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you’re napping since your sleep at night feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Employ naps for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that naps must not be too extended to disrupt your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on the time you retire overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers showed up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a specialist. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the perfect length of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies suggests it’s better to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for a long period, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest adopting the same protocol you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Some advise that it's fine to simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” explains an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially tell yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a time when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when your choices are limited – for instance, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I advise that they not rely on their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
