Listen to plenty of productivity experts, making it tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a path towards improved recall, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Elite footballers do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you lack a special sleep space or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for taking a nap among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, where you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially is about desire: you get an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is consider why you want to nap. “Naps can be really helpful when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap as your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (based on the time you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. Among the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around concerning the perfect length of minutes, however, that can cause people to feel more worried above all – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research indicates it is preferable to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a full cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
When it comes to specific techniques, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose using comparable habits one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the space your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be a natural inclination available to start the process in the first place. I can usually nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps most folks is to wait for a moment that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – such as, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with footballers, I advise that they don’t get used to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
