Listen to enough performance podcasters, making it easy to believe that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a quick fix after poor sleep, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes swear by it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a special sleep space or employment that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three main reasons for napping for many people,” says an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, that is what happens following insufficient sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep in the future, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you get a chance to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “But if you nap since your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that can be an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it needs to be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your sleep at night, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you retire at night). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. From a prominent study on the subject, space agency scientists discovered that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – most people are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around regarding the perfect length of time, yet that often make people feel more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research suggests it’s better to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals recommend employing comparable habits one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bed as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination present to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – for example, if attempting to grab a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
