Tune into a few self-improvement experts, and it’s simple to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers swear by it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. However, if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a job that permits frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a leading circadian rhythm professor. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit ahead, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to wanting: there is an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed due to causes outside your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or recovering from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you nap because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not where required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, 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 Ideal Nap Length
This implies that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts experienced up to a 54% increase in vigilance plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this counted a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, yet that often make people feel more worried than anything – and the least helpful action you can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research suggests it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you nap for a long period, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Creating the Right Snooze Setting
Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. Some experts suggest using the same protocol you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could merely snooze on a couch in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your bedroom as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” notes an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a moment that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when options are scarce – for example, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will