Tune into a few performance experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe quicker running times. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do musicians, mixed martial artists and business leaders. Yet, when you don't have a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science researcher. “Firstly, there's what we call make-up sleep, that is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example during overnight shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which basically comes down to wanting: you have an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap since your night sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not where required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your sleep at night, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (based on when you sleep overnight). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research about napping, experts discovered that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the perfect length of minutes, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies would say it is preferable to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the expert. “45 minutes is long enough to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose adopting comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” says an expert. “Without the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and practically tell yourself to nod off. You need some drive present to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing some accessories. “Coaching footballers, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
