Tune into enough self-improvement experts, making it simple to think that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster after restless night, but a path towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League footballers swear by it – along with concert pianists, fighters & media moguls. But if you lack a special sleep space or employment that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science researcher. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, essentially what happens when you’ve had poor sleep overnight. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for instance during on night shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about desire: you have a moment to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to do, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “However, if you take a nap because your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and ideally should not occur after about 3pm (based on the time you retire overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. From a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “You'll find much recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “The science suggests it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you nap for a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
As for specific techniques, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose adopting the same protocol you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could just doze in a chair in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure available to start the process initially. I can usually nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to look for an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should options are scarce – for example, if attempting to grab a quick nap while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “When I’m working with footballers, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
