Listen to enough performance experts, and you'll be tempting to believe that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional athletes are all at it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for napping among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science specialist. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit ahead, for instance during overnight shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply comes down to the wish: you get a moment to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The first thing to do, then, is to examine why you want to nap. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you’re napping as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority ought to remain a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This implies that naps shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on what time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists noted that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Research suggests it is preferable to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more alert. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals propose using the same protocol one would use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” explains an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically command yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive present to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to wait for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for example, if attempting to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
