Tune into plenty of productivity experts, making it simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Professional footballers do it regularly – and so are musicians, UFC champions and high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three main reasons for taking a nap for many people,” notes a leading sleep science professor. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, which is the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for sleep loss in the future, for instance when working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically boils down to desire: there is a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – such as, if you’re a new parent, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping since your sleep at night feels fragile or poor, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This means that naps ought not to be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists found that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around about the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to nod off is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science would say it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest employing the same protocol you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that one could simply nap on a couch in whatever light happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to get comfortable and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive available to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – such as, when aiming to grab some shut-eye while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing sleep aids. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
