Tune into plenty of performance gurus, making it simple to think that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Elite soccer players are all at it – along with musicians, UFC champions & business leaders. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the hassle? Is there a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” notes a leading sleep science professor. “The first is what we call recovery napping, that is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating sleep loss in the future, for example during on night shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: there is a moment to nap in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to undertake, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap because your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and preferably are not recommended in the late afternoon (depending on what time you retire overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts found that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this counted a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much guidance out there about the ideal number of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you wake. “The science indicates it is preferable to have an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – while if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose adopting comparable habits one would use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that one could just doze on the sofa in whatever light is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bedroom as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says an expert. “Without the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to lie down and basically tell yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to look for a moment where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should your choices are limited – such as, if you’re trying to fit in a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
