Hear a few productivity experts, and it’s tempting to think that a nap is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional footballers swear by it – along with professional piano players, fighters and high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a career that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to merit the effort? Can you find a reliable way to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for daytime sleep for many people,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's what we call make-up sleep, that is the action you take following poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep in the future, such as when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to wanting: you get a moment to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The primary task to consider, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – such as, for caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap since your sleep at night seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, not the solution. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This means that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (depending on when you retire at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research indicates it's more effective to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals recommend adopting comparable habits you use to foster a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that one could just doze in a chair in the existing light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” notes a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to start the process initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a time where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
