Tune into a few performance gurus, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Premier League athletes are all at it – along with professional piano players, UFC champions & high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that allows frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“Experts note three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” explains a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “One is known as make-up sleep, essentially what happens following poor sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which basically boils down to wanting: there is a chance to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap as your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not where required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Use napping as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that napping shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur in the late afternoon (based on when you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies about napping, experts noted that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off quickly,” notes a specialist. “There is plenty of recommendations about the perfect length for sleeping, however, that can lead individuals to become more stressed above all – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research would say it is preferable to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing a full cycle and should wake up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals recommend employing comparable habits you’d use to foster a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bedroom as the place your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” explains a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to initiate sleep initially. Personally, I can often nap in full light and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – such as, when aiming to grab a quick nap while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
