Hear a few performance podcasters, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix after restless night, but a path to improved recall, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players swear by it – as do professional piano players, UFC champions & business leaders. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three main reasons for napping for many people,” says a professor of sleep science researcher. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, essentially what happens following poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are anticipating sleep loss coming up, for instance when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply boils down to desire: there is an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to do, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap as your sleep at night seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods to address immediate needs – the main goal must always be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (depending on the time you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists found that crew members had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research would say it is preferable to opt for a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you nap for a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
Regarding specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists recommend adopting the same protocol you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive there to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and wake up naturally without an alarm, though, what aids most folks is to look for an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when options are scarce – for example, when aiming to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
