Hear plenty of performance experts, making it easy to think that napping is a superpower: rather than a quick fix after poor sleep, but a shortcut towards a better memory, better spirits and possibly a faster 5k run time. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists and media moguls. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” explains an expert sleep science specialist. “Firstly, there's termed make-up sleep, which is what you do following insufficient sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you have a chance to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The primary task to consider, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you’re napping as your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the priority must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on what time you sleep overnight). How long is sensible? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that crew members had up to a 54% increase in vigilance plus a 34% rise in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep quickly,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of guidance out there concerning the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more worried above all – and the worst thing you can do when trying to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science would say it's more effective to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – however, if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Creating the Right Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. Some experts suggest using comparable habits one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that you should simply nap on a couch in the existing light is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to will,” explains an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and essentially command yourself to nod off. You need some drive available to bring the sleep on to begin with. I can usually snooze in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to grab some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
