Hear a few performance gurus, and you'll be easy to believe that napping is a secret weapon: more than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a route to improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Elite soccer players are all at it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or employment that permits regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” explains a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, that is what happens when you’ve had insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting a sleep deficit in the future, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially is about the wish: you get an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to do, so, is to examine why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for example, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping because your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that’s often a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
Therefore that daytime sleep ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (based on the time you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. Among a prominent study about napping, space agency scientists noted that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the optimal amount of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies suggests it’s better to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for a long period, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits you use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze in a chair in the existing light is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze in broad daylight and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for instance, when aiming to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
