Hear plenty of productivity experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a shortcut towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Professional athletes do it regularly – along with professional piano players, UFC champions & high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or a career that allows frequent naps, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the effort? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep in the adult population,” explains an expert circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's what we call make-up sleep, that is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, where you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, for instance when working overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically is about the wish: you have a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, so, is consider your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for instance, for a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap as your sleep at night is unstable or unreliable, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you retire overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists found that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the ideal number of time, but that tends to make people feel more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies would say it’s better to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it will affect your sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals recommend using the same protocol you use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and minimal light as is feasible. Some advise that you should merely snooze in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to lie down and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive available to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a time when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to fit in a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I advise that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
