Listen to plenty of performance gurus, making it simple to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a route to improved recall, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – along with professional piano players, UFC champions and high-profile executives. But if you lack a room for napping or a career that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” explains an expert circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is termed make-up sleep, that is what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep the previous night. Another is preparatory napping, when you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for instance during on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about desire: there is an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The primary task to consider, then, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you nap since your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus ought to remain a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping shouldn’t be too extended to affect your sleep at night, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on the time you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority doze off quickly,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the ideal number of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science indicates it is preferable to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals propose using similar routines you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. I can usually snooze during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps most folks is to anticipate a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – for example, if attempting to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
