Hear plenty of self-improvement podcasters, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, better spirits and maybe quicker running times. Elite athletes do it regularly – along with professional piano players, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you lack a room for napping or employment that permits regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” says a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, essentially what happens after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, which involves anticipating sleep loss coming up, such as when working on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to desire: there is a moment to nap during the day, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “But if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often a sign your sleep drive is not where it needs to be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on the time you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most referenced research on the subject, experts noted that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science would say it’s better to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using the same protocol you use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that you should merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to preserve your bed as the environment you associate with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive present to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often nap during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, though, what aids most folks is to look for a time when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing sleep aids. “When I’m working with footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
