Hear plenty of performance podcasters, and it’s tempting to think that napping is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a route towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers do it regularly – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists and business leaders. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap in the adult population,” says a professor of circadian rhythm specialist. “One is what we call compensatory napping, that is what you do following insufficient sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, such as if you’re working on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you get an opportunity to nap in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a new parent, or you’re recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, 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, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that daytime sleep ought not to be too extended to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (based on when you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the perfect length of time, but that tends to make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when attempting to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research would say it's more effective to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you're dozing for a long period, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts propose employing comparable habits one would use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap on a couch in whatever light is available – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to fit in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I advise that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
