Hear enough self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be tempting to think that napping is a superpower: not just a band-aid after poor sleep, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Premier League footballers do it regularly – as do musicians, fighters & high-profile executives. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a career that permits frequent naps, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the hassle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” notes an expert sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, that is what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example during on night shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to desire: you get a chance to doze in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping since your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In such situations, naps can become part of the problem, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (based on when you go to bed overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more worried above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “The science suggests it's more effective to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy when you wake up – whereas if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect your sleep in the evening.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts suggest using similar routines you’d use to promote restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to recline and basically command yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive available to start the process to begin with. I can usually nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to wait for a time when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if your choices are limited – for example, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks while traveling or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
