Tune into a few self-improvement experts, and it’s easy to think that dozing is a superpower: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut to a better memory, better spirits and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional footballers swear by it – along with concert pianists, fighters and business leaders. However, if you lack a room for napping or a career that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is known as compensatory napping, which is the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to wanting: you get a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors beyond your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping because your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal ought to remain a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This means that napping shouldn’t be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on the time you retire overnight). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, experts noted that astronauts showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there concerning the ideal number of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies suggests it's more effective to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to precise methods, advice differs. A few professionals propose employing similar routines one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on a couch in the existing light is present – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the environment you associate with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to will,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to initiate sleep to begin with. I can usually take a nap during the day and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and if you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I advise that they not rely on napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
