Tune into enough performance podcasters, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, better spirits and maybe quicker running times. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do concert pianists, UFC champions and media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling better, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for napping for many people,” notes a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's what we call recovery napping, essentially what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, when you are preparing for insufficient sleep ahead, such as when working on night shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply boils down to wanting: there is an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The primary task to undertake, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors outside your control – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that’s often a signal your sleep drive is not at the level it needs to be. Under those circumstances, napping 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 robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on what time you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that crew members had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “The science indicates it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to finish of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. Though if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals propose adopting the same protocol you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair in the existing light is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to force,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically command yourself to fall asleep. There must be a natural inclination available to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I advise that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
