Tune into enough performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to believe that napping is a superpower: more than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a path to improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players swear by it – along with musicians, UFC champions and business leaders. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or a job that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three main reasons for taking a nap among most adults,” explains a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is termed make-up sleep, essentially what you do following insufficient sleep the night before. Another is pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which simply boils down to desire: there is a chance to sleep in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap because your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (depending on the time you retire in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists found that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals doze off quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there regarding the ideal number of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “The science indicates it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end a full cycle and should awaken feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Nap Environment
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts suggest adopting similar routines you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to will,” says a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to recline and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination available to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to wait for an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when your choices are limited – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
