Tune into enough performance experts, and you'll be tempting to believe that napping is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – along with professional piano players, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you lack a special sleep space or a job that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap for it to be worth the hassle? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you really guarantee you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep for many people,” explains a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's what we call make-up sleep, that is what happens following insufficient sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example during on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: there is a moment to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The primary task to do, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for instance, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap as your sleep at night is unstable or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the priority should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that naps ought not to be too extended to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (based on when you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research about napping, experts discovered that space travelers experienced up to a 54% increase in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority are asleep quickly,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around about the optimal amount for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried above all – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “The science indicates it’s better to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end of a sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep in the evening.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest employing the same protocol you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that one could merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” says an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive available to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to wait for a time where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if you have few options – such as, when aiming to grab 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
