Tune into a few productivity experts, making it tempting to believe that dozing is a superpower: more than a quick fix following poor sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional footballers are all at it – as do musicians, mixed martial artists and media moguls. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a career that permits frequent naps, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” notes an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, which is the action you take following insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about desire: you have a moment to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep specialist. “However, if you nap because your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not where required. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur after about 3pm (depending on the time you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members had up to a 54% increase in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There is plenty of recommendations regarding the optimal amount of time, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the worst thing you can do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science would say it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you nap for a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest adopting similar routines you use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could simply nap on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” says an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some drive present to bring the sleep on initially. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, but what helps most folks is to look for a time where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should options are scarce – for example, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
