Listen to plenty of self-improvement experts, and it’s tempting to think that a nap is a superpower: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a path towards improved recall, better spirits and perhaps quicker running times. Professional soccer players swear by it – along with concert pianists, UFC champions and high-profile executives. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“Experts note three main reasons for taking a nap for many people,” says an expert circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's known as recovery napping, that is what you do following insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for instance if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to wanting: you have a chance to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for instance, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, naps can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that naps shouldn’t be too extended to affect your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in task performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the ideal number of minutes, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried above all – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research indicates it is preferable to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – however, if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals suggest employing the same protocol one would use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to simply nap on a couch in whatever light is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to will,” says an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and practically command yourself to go to sleep. You need some drive there to start the process in the first place. I can usually snooze during the day and naturally wake up without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to look for an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to fit in a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing 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
