Tune into enough productivity gurus, and it’s easy to believe that dozing is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers do it regularly – as do musicians, UFC champions and high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” says a professor of sleep science professor. “One is termed recovery napping, that is what you do when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are anticipating a sleep deficit in the future, for instance when working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially boils down to desire: there is a moment to doze in the afternoon, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – for example, if you’re a new parent, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In such situations, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal ought to remain a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
Therefore that naps must not be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and best shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, experts discovered that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” notes a specialist. “There is plenty of guidance out there regarding the ideal number of time, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything else – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies would say it’s better to have an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you nap for a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using the same protocol one would use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to will,” notes an expert. “Without the urge to sleep, it is tougher to recline and basically command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually take a nap during the day and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to look for an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
