Tune into enough self-improvement experts, making it easy to believe that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and perhaps improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players swear by it – as do musicians, fighters & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for napping for many people,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's what we call recovery napping, essentially the action you take following poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, for example when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to wanting: you have an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or broken, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on the time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that crew members experienced up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the ideal number of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research indicates it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – however, if you take it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting
When it comes to precise methods, advice differs. Some experts propose employing comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap in a chair in whatever light is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bedroom as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is notoriously difficult to force,” explains an expert. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to recline and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – such as, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ sleep aids. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
