Tune into enough self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be easy to believe that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Elite soccer players are all at it – along with concert pianists, fighters and media moguls. Yet, when you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Does there exist a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” says an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is known as make-up sleep, that is the action you take following a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, for example during on night shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to wanting: you get an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, for caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you’re napping as your nighttime sleep feels fragile or poor, that can be an indicator your sleep drive is not where it should be. In those cases, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that naps must not be too extended to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on what time you go to bed overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists discovered that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” says a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there regarding the optimal amount of time, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research suggests it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for a long period, it may impact your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose using the same protocol you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the place you associate with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and basically instruct yourself to nod off. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, but what helps most folks is to wait for an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
