Listen to enough performance experts, making it simple to believe that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional athletes swear by it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that encourages daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm researcher. “One is termed recovery napping, which is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit in the future, such as when working on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about desire: you have an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed because of factors outside your control – for example, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping because your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This implies that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (depending on when you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. Among the most referenced research on the subject, experts found that crew members showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “You'll find much recommendations about the optimal amount for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more worried above all – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “The science would say it is preferable to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. Though if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose adopting similar routines you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to just doze on the sofa in the existing light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” says an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination present to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and wake up naturally without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a time when they are naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
