Listen to plenty of performance experts, making it simple to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix after restless night, but a path towards improved recall, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Premier League footballers are all at it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a career that allows frequent naps, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to merit the kerfuffle? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap for many people,” says an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, that is what happens when you’ve had a lack of sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for instance when working on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically is about the wish: you have an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors you cannot change – for example, for caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In such situations, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
Therefore that napping shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally should not occur in the late afternoon (based on the time you retire in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, experts found that astronauts had up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this counted a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” says a specialist. “You'll find much advice around regarding the optimal amount of minutes, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science suggests it's more effective to take an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – while if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest employing the same protocol one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze in a chair in whatever light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bed as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is tougher to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to nod off. You need some sleep pressure available to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab a quick nap while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
