Listen to a few performance gurus, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a route towards a better memory, improved mood and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite soccer players swear by it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep for many people,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “One is what we call compensatory napping, that is the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep ahead, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which basically is about the wish: there is a chance to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The first thing to consider, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep specialist. “But if you nap because your sleep at night seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be an indicator your sleep drive is not where required. In those cases, napping can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Use napping as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that naps shouldn’t be too extended to affect your nighttime sleep, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (contingent on the time you retire in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts noted that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there about the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Research would say it is preferable to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts suggest employing the same protocol you use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that you should just doze on a couch in whatever light is present – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the space you associate with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for a moment that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for instance, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
