Listen to plenty of performance gurus, and it’s tempting to think that napping is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes do it regularly – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. But if you don't have a room for napping or a career that permits frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” says a leading circadian rhythm professor. “One is known as recovery napping, which is what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves anticipating sleep loss coming up, such as during graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to desire: you have an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – for example, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap since your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not at the level it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on when you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the perfect length of time, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “Research indicates it is preferable to take a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you take it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists recommend adopting similar routines you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as possible. Some advise that you should simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a specialist. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to start the process in the first place. I can usually snooze in broad daylight and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps most folks is to wait for a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – for example, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
