Tune into enough performance podcasters, making it easy to think that dozing is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a route to improved recall, better spirits and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite soccer players do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and high-profile executives. However, if you lack a room for napping or employment that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to nod off promptly? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for napping for many people,” notes a professor of sleep science specialist. “The first is termed make-up sleep, essentially what happens after experiencing poor sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, which involves anticipating a sleep deficit in the future, for example if you’re working on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to wanting: you have a moment to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to consider, so, is to examine why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, for a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that’s often a sign your need for sleep is not where required. In those cases, naps can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This implies that napping must not be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you sleep overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study on the subject, experts found that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep quickly,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research would say it's more effective to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel groggy when you get up – while if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest using the same protocol you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is present – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the space you associate with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” says an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to look for a time when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to grab a quick nap during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
