Tune into enough productivity podcasters, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards a better memory, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Elite athletes swear by it – as do musicians, UFC champions and high-profile executives. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a job that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a reliable way to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, that is what you do when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to wanting: you have an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to consider, so, is consider why you want to nap. “Naps can be really helpful when night sleeping is being disrupted because of factors beyond your control – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “Yet when you nap as your nighttime sleep feels fragile or broken, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This means that naps ought not to be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you sleep overnight). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. From a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts showed a boost of up to 54% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations about the ideal number of minutes, however, that can make people feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies suggests it’s better to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to put you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest using comparable habits you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the place your mind associates with proper sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to will,” says a sleep coach. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. There must be a natural inclination there to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – such as, when aiming to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
