Tune into a few productivity experts, making it easy to convince yourself that dozing is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Elite athletes do it regularly – as do professional piano players, fighters & media moguls. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that allows frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping for many people,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is known as recovery napping, which is what happens following insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for instance during overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially boils down to wanting: you have a chance to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to undertake, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that’s often a sign your sleep drive is not at the level required. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the focus must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your sleep at night, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on what time you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most-cited studies on the subject, experts discovered that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in task performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved a six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for half an hour or less – most people doze off quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the optimal amount of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies indicates it’s better to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as possible. Some advise that one could merely snooze on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the space your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to recline and practically tell yourself to nod off. You need a natural inclination there to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when options are scarce – for example, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I advise that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
