Hear a few self-improvement gurus, and you'll be tempting to think that napping is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster after restless night, but a route to improved recall, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists and media moguls. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that encourages frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep for many people,” notes an expert sleep science professor. “One is what we call recovery napping, which is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves preparing for insufficient sleep in the future, for example when working on night shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to wanting: you get a moment to nap during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you’re napping as your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on when you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts experienced up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep quickly,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can make people feel more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “Studies indicates it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “45 minutes is sufficient to put you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy when you wake up – while if you nap for a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. Certain specialists propose using the same protocol one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that it's fine to just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the space your brain links with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” says a specialist. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to nod off. You need some sleep pressure available to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and if you have few options – such as, if you’re trying to grab some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
