Hear plenty of productivity podcasters, and you'll be tempting to think that napping is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players swear by it – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists & business leaders. Yet, when you lack a room for napping or a career that permits regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” explains a leading sleep science professor. “One is what we call make-up sleep, which is what happens when you’ve had a lack of sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep in the future, for example if you’re working on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to wanting: you get a chance to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The initial step to consider, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep is unstable or unreliable, that can be an indicator your sleep drive is not where required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on when you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Advice differs. From the most referenced research about napping, experts found that crew members showed up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much guidance out there concerning the optimal amount of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the least helpful action you can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science would say it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Nap Environment
As for precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits you use to foster restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze in a chair in whatever light is present – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the space your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a specialist. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically command yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks on a train or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to employ some accessories. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
