Listen to a few productivity experts, and it’s simple to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards a better memory, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, mixed martial artists & media moguls. Yet, when you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that allows frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“Experts note three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” explains a professor of sleep and circadian science professor. “One is known as make-up sleep, which is the action you take following a lack of sleep the night before. Another is pre-emptive sleep, when you are anticipating a sleep deficit in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about the wish: you get a chance to sleep in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – such as, if you’re a new parent, or you’re recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap as your sleep at night seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts experienced up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I recommend setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the worst thing one can do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research indicates it's more effective to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is long enough to put you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals suggest employing the same protocol one would use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface 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 post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the space your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate a moment where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – such as, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I suggest that they not rely on napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
