Hear plenty of productivity experts, and it’s simple to believe that dozing is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, better spirits and possibly a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do musicians, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Is there a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains an expert sleep science researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep overnight. The second is prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to the wish: you get an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The first thing to do, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep is unstable or poor, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and ideally should not occur after about 3pm (based on when you retire overnight). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study about napping, space agency scientists noted that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% increase in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the perfect length of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research would say it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more alert. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals recommend using similar routines you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Others suggest that you should simply nap on the sofa in the existing light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” explains an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and practically instruct yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze in broad daylight and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps most folks is to anticipate a time when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – for example, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
