Tune into plenty of self-improvement experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with concert pianists, UFC champions and business leaders. Yet, when you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a job that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” says an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, that is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about wanting: you get an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to consider, then, is to examine your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “Yet when you’re napping as your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that can be an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists found that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “There is plenty of guidance out there concerning the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to take an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you get up – however, if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be completing a full cycle and should get up feeling more alert. But if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest employing the same protocol one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is present – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” says a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for a time where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
