Tune into plenty of performance experts, making it simple to think that napping is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid following restless night, but a path towards improved recall, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional footballers are all at it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists and business leaders. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or employment that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” says a professor of sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, which is the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, for instance when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The initial step to do, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – for example, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap because your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that’s often a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that naps must not be long enough to disrupt your overnight rest, and best shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members showed up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around concerning the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed above all – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science indicates it's more effective to opt for a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – however, if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating the Right Snooze Setting
As for specific techniques, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend adopting similar routines you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that you should simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to recline and basically command yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure available to start the process in the first place. I can usually snooze in broad daylight and wake up naturally without an alarm, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – for instance, when aiming to fit in a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing some accessories. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
