Listen to a few performance gurus, and you'll be simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite soccer players swear by it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists and business leaders. But if you don't have a room for napping or a career that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” notes a leading sleep science specialist. “The first is termed recovery napping, essentially what you do following poor sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep ahead, for instance during on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to the wish: you have a moment to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons outside your control – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, not the solution. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep ought not to be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (contingent on when you retire at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more stressed above all – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies would say it’s better to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – while if you nap for a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose employing the same protocol you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze on a couch in the existing light is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to command,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to recline and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. There must be a natural inclination there to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually nap in full light and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to look for a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to grab a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
