Hear enough performance gurus, and it’s easy to think that dozing is a superpower: more than a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players are all at it – along with musicians, fighters and media moguls. However, if you lack a room for napping or employment that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the effort? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will arise feeling better, not worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” says a professor of circadian rhythm researcher. “One is termed recovery napping, that is the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially boils down to wanting: you get a moment to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, then, is to examine why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap since your nighttime sleep is unstable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for short-term problems – the main goal ought to remain a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on when you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists noted that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals are asleep quickly,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around about the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can make people feel more anxious than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to opt for a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “45 minutes is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – while if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose employing comparable habits one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that one could simply nap on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” says an expert. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically tell yourself to nod off. You need a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – for example, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “Coaching footballers, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
