Listen to a few productivity gurus, making it tempting to think that napping is a superpower: more than a quick fix after poor sleep, but a path towards improved recall, better spirits and perhaps quicker running times. Premier League athletes do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, fighters and high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or employment that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” notes a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep overnight. Another is preparatory napping, which involves anticipating a sleep deficit coming up, such as when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which basically is about the wish: there is an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to do, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (depending on what time you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed above all – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you nap for a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to finish of a sleep cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend adopting comparable habits one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to start the process initially. Personally, I can often snooze in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
