Listen to plenty of performance gurus, and you'll be easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a route to a better memory, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Is there a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” notes a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is known as compensatory napping, which is what happens when you’ve had insufficient sleep overnight. The second is pre-emptive sleep, when you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to wanting: there is a chance to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to consider, then, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted because of factors outside your control – for instance, if you’re a new parent, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
Therefore that napping ought not to be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (based on when you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There is plenty of advice around concerning the optimal amount for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science suggests it's more effective to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you get up – whereas if you nap for slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists recommend using the same protocol you’d use to promote a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on the sofa in whatever light is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – for instance, when aiming to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
