Hear plenty of performance experts, and it’s tempting to believe that napping is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster after restless night, but a shortcut towards improved recall, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Premier League footballers are all at it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists and business leaders. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or a job that encourages frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the hassle? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” notes an expert circadian rhythm professor. “One is known as recovery napping, that is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit in the future, for example when working on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about wanting: you get a chance to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, for caring for an infant, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap as your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, naps can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that naps ought not to be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (contingent on what time you retire overnight). How long is sensible? Advice differs. Among a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% increase in task performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals are asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there concerning the ideal number of time, however, that can cause people to feel more anxious than anything – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to take an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you extend it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence how you sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest adopting comparable habits you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to simply nap on the sofa in the existing light is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with proper sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and essentially instruct yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure available to start the process initially. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for instance, if you’re trying to grab a quick nap on a train or at the office – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I advise that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
