Hear enough performance experts, making it easy to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: rather than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that permits regular snoozing, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“There are three main reasons for napping among most adults,” explains a professor of sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, essentially what you do following insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting sleep loss coming up, for instance during on night shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically boils down to desire: there is a moment to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Napping can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping since your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Use napping as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that napping shouldn’t be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (based on the time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists found that astronauts experienced up to a 54% increase in vigilance plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations regarding the ideal number of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies would say it's more effective to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you nap for slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a full cycle and should wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend adopting the same protocol you’d use to foster restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bed as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to lie down and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. I can usually nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – such as, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
