Listen to a few self-improvement gurus, and you'll be easy to think that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes do it regularly – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages daytime sleep, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science professor. “One is termed recovery napping, that is the action you take following a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically is about the wish: you have a moment to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The initial step to do, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “Yet when you’re napping because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps for brief periods for short-term problems – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (based on when you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there about the ideal number of time, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies indicates it’s better to take a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – while if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more alert. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists recommend using the same protocol you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a sleep coach. “Without any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. You need some sleep pressure there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to use some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
