Listen to a few productivity gurus, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and perhaps improved athletic performance. Premier League athletes swear by it – as do musicians, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” says a professor of circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's known as recovery napping, which is what happens when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. Another is preparatory napping, when you are anticipating a sleep deficit coming up, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically boils down to desire: there is a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to do, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority ought to remain a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you go to bed overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the ideal number of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the least helpful action one can do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research indicates it is preferable to opt for a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – while if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. However, if you nap for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Right Sleep Space
As for precise methods, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose using similar routines you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in the existing light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” says an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if you have few options – such as, if attempting to fit in 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
