Hear enough productivity gurus, and you'll be easy to think that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a route to a better memory, a brighter outlook and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players swear by it – as do concert pianists, UFC champions & high-profile executives. But if you lack a special sleep space or a career that allows frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” notes a professor of sleep science specialist. “The first is what we call recovery napping, which is what you do after experiencing poor sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, such as during overnight shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – for instance, for a new parent, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep expert. “Yet when you’re napping since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not where it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
Therefore that napping must not be too extended to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on when you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around concerning the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried above all – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Studies indicates it’s better to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “45 minutes is long enough to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a full cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair in the existing light is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often nap during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, though, what aids most folks is to look for a time where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab some shut-eye while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ sleep aids. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they not rely on their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
