Listen to a few performance experts, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that napping is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid after poor sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players swear by it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Does there exist a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will arise feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” explains an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is known as make-up sleep, which is the action you take after experiencing poor sleep overnight. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, when you are anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to the wish: you have a chance to nap during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Naps can be really helpful when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap because your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that can be an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on when you retire at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. Among the most-cited studies about napping, experts discovered that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority are asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more worried than anything – and the worst thing one can do when attempting to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies would say it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – whereas if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits you use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” explains a sleep coach. “Without any drowsiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure present to start the process initially. For me, it's possible to nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
