Listen to a few self-improvement podcasters, making it easy to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a shortcut to improved recall, better spirits and maybe quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – as do musicians, fighters & media moguls. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the hassle? Can you find a reliable way to nod off promptly? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” says a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is what we call recovery napping, that is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting a sleep deficit ahead, for example during overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically is about wanting: you get a chance to doze in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to consider, so, is consider why you want to nap. “Napping can be really helpful when night sleeping is disturbed due to causes outside your control – for instance, if you’re a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that naps must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and preferably should not occur after about 3pm (depending on what time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists discovered that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a specialist. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the optimal amount of time, but that tends to make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research suggests it’s better to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy when you wake up – however, if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts propose employing comparable habits one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your bed as the space your brain links with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to recline and basically command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some drive present to start the process initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – such as, when aiming to fit in 40 winks on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
