Listen to plenty of performance podcasters, making it tempting to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: rather than a quick fix following poor sleep, but a path to a better memory, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do concert pianists, fighters and media moguls. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three main reasons for daytime sleep among most adults,” explains an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “One is known as recovery napping, essentially what you do following poor sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, where you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, such as if you’re working overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about the wish: there is a chance to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, then, is to examine your reason for napping. “Naps can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – such as, for a new parent, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep specialist. “However, if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
Therefore that napping ought not to be long enough to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (contingent on when you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies on the subject, space agency scientists found that space travelers had up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around about the ideal number of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action you can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science indicates it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “45 minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you nap for a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts suggest using similar routines you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Some advise that one could merely snooze on a couch in whatever light is present – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to recline and practically command yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure available to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if your choices are limited – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks during a commute or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
