Hear enough performance experts, making it easy to think that napping is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following poor sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Premier League footballers do it regularly – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. But if you lack a special sleep space or employment that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to justify the effort? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping for many people,” notes an expert sleep science specialist. “The first is termed recovery napping, essentially the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, when you are anticipating a sleep deficit in the future, for instance during overnight shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: there is a moment to doze during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes beyond your control – for instance, for caring for an infant, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “However, if you’re napping since your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This means that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (contingent on when you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, experts found that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I recommend setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the perfect length of time, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies suggests it's more effective to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “45 minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits you use to foster a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to just doze on a couch in the existing light is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to force,” notes a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to lie down and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive present to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for a time that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
