Tune into a few self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be tempting to think that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Premier League footballers swear by it – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that permits frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to merit the kerfuffle? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” notes an expert sleep science specialist. “One is termed recovery napping, essentially what you do when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, such as when working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about the wish: there is an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to do, so, is consider your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons you cannot change – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap since your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that napping ought not to be too extended to affect your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (based on when you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among a prominent study about napping, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this counted a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you wake. “Research suggests it is preferable to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that one could just doze on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” says a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
