Hear a few self-improvement gurus, and it’s simple to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers swear by it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists & business leaders. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that encourages regular snoozing, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “One is termed recovery napping, which is what you do after experiencing poor sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example when working overnight shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially is about wanting: there is an opportunity to nap in the afternoon, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In those cases, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that naps must not be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and preferably are not recommended in the late afternoon (depending on when you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this counted an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – many individuals fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, however, that can make people feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Studies would say it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you nap for a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep later that night.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest adopting the same protocol you’d use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Some advise that one could merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light happens to be around – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically command yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – such as, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
