Hear plenty of performance gurus, and it’s easy to believe that napping is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster after restless night, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Professional footballers are all at it – as do musicians, fighters and business leaders. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or a career that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” says an expert sleep and circadian science researcher. “One is termed compensatory napping, essentially what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for instance during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to the wish: you have a moment to sleep in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes beyond your control – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that naps shouldn’t be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on what time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. Among a prominent study on the subject, experts discovered that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there about the optimal amount of time, however, that can lead individuals to become more stressed above all – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to nod off is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies indicates it is preferable to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using the same protocol one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap on the sofa in whatever light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the place your brain links with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for a time where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
