Tune into a few self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid following poor sleep, but a route to improved recall, better spirits and maybe quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists & business leaders. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a career that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for napping for many people,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science researcher. “One is termed recovery napping, essentially what happens after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for sleep loss ahead, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to the wish: you have an opportunity to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed due to causes beyond your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
Therefore that napping shouldn’t be too extended to interfere with your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on what time you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, experts noted that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the ideal number of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research indicates it's more effective to opt for a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you nap for a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals recommend adopting comparable habits one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on a couch with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination available to start the process in the first place. I can usually snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – for example, if attempting to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
