Hear a few productivity podcasters, making it tempting to think that napping is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, fighters and high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Can you find a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” says an expert circadian rhythm specialist. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is the action you take after experiencing poor sleep overnight. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating sleep loss in the future, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to wanting: you get a chance to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you’re napping since your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (depending on the time you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, experts found that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more stressed above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies indicates it’s better to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals recommend adopting the same protocol you’d use to foster restful sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light is available – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to nod off. There must be some drive there to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and naturally wake up alarm-free, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
