Hear plenty of self-improvement podcasters, and it’s tempting to think that napping is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after restless night, but a route towards improved recall, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes are all at it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you lack a room for napping or a career that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” says an expert sleep science professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep in the future, such as if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: you have a chance to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The first thing to consider, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (based on what time you go to bed in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Research suggests it is preferable to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Right Nap Environment
Regarding specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting the same protocol you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze in a chair in whatever light is available – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and practically tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids many individuals is to look for an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – for example, when aiming to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
