Listen to plenty of performance experts, making it easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Elite athletes swear by it – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists & media moguls. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, that is what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit ahead, such as during graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about wanting: you get a moment to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons outside your control – such as, if you’re caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you’re napping because your night sleep seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not where required. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping ought not to be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, experts found that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off quickly,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around concerning the optimal amount for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more stressed above all – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies indicates it is preferable to opt for a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using similar routines one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap in a chair in whatever light is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” explains an expert. “Without the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to get comfortable and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some drive there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to look for a moment that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to grab a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
