Listen to enough performance gurus, making it simple to believe that dozing is a powerful tool: rather than a band-aid after restless night, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Professional soccer players do it regularly – along with concert pianists, fighters & business leaders. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a career that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“There are three main reasons for napping for many people,” explains an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. Another is preparatory napping, which involves anticipating sleep loss coming up, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to desire: you get an opportunity to doze in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The initial step to do, so, is consider why you want to nap. “Naps can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap since your night sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a sign your sleep drive is not where it should be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
Therefore that naps ought not to be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on the time you sleep overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much guidance out there regarding the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when attempting to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science suggests it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy upon awakening – whereas if you nap for a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists suggest using comparable habits one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and minimal light as is feasible. Some advise that one could just doze on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to command,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically command yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to start the process initially. I can usually nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, however, what assists most folks is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – for example, when aiming to grab 40 winks during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
