Listen to plenty of performance podcasters, making it easy to believe that dozing is a superpower: more than a quick fix after restless night, but a route towards improved recall, better spirits and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers swear by it – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. Yet, when you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that permits regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is termed compensatory napping, that is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss ahead, for example during on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to wanting: you have an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The first thing to consider, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – such as, for caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap as your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be too extended to interfere with your sleep at night, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (based on what time you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From a prominent study on the subject, experts discovered that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this counted a six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around concerning the perfect length for sleeping, however, that can lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “The science would say it’s better to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “45 minutes is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – however, if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists recommend using the same protocol you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that one could just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to force,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically command yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination available to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – such as, when aiming to fit in 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
