Listen to a few performance podcasters, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and perhaps quicker running times. Elite footballers are all at it – as do musicians, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to justify the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is what we call recovery napping, essentially the action you take when you’ve had a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically boils down to the wish: you have an opportunity to doze during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The first thing to do, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, when you are a new parent, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap as your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not where it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the priority must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (based on the time you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations regarding the perfect length of minutes, however, that can make people feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research suggests it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – however, if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose using comparable habits you’d use to foster restful sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that one could just doze on a couch in the existing light is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination there to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to look for a moment when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – such as, if attempting to fit in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
