Listen to enough self-improvement podcasters, making it simple to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid following restless night, but a route towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the kerfuffle? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” notes an expert sleep and circadian science researcher. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, essentially what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, for instance when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “Yet when you nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (based on when you retire in the evening). How long is sensible? Advice differs. From a prominent study on the subject, experts noted that space travelers had up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed above all – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science suggests it is preferable to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose using similar routines you use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as possible. Some advise that one could merely snooze on a couch in whatever light is present – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically command yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive present to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually nap in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
