Listen to a few performance experts, and it’s tempting to believe that napping is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Premier League footballers do it regularly – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you lack a special sleep space or employment that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap among most adults,” explains a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for instance during overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply is about wanting: you have an opportunity to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – for example, for a new parent, or you’re recovering from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping because your sleep at night seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your need for sleep is not where it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that naps shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on when you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the perfect length of minutes, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research suggests it's more effective to opt for an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
Regarding specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that you should just doze on the sofa in whatever light is present – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bedroom as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically instruct yourself to nod off. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to initiate sleep initially. I can usually snooze during the day and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
