Listen to a few performance gurus, making it tempting to think that napping is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a route towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Professional footballers swear by it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for napping for many people,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, that is what happens after experiencing poor sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for instance if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to wanting: you have a chance to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – for example, for a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This means that napping must not be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you sleep overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Studies would say it’s better to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you take it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a full cycle and should wake up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals recommend adopting comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that you should just doze on a couch in the existing light is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure present to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – such as, if attempting to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
