Hear plenty of performance gurus, and it’s easy to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a path towards a better memory, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and business leaders. Yet, when you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” notes a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “One is known as recovery napping, essentially what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting sleep loss coming up, for example if you’re working on night shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you get a moment to doze in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to consider, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap as your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. In such situations, naps can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus should still be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you sleep in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts found that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people doze off quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “The science indicates it’s better to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest employing comparable habits one would use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze in a chair in whatever light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bedroom as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” explains an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to lie down and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some drive there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and when your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to fit in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
