Listen to enough self-improvement experts, and you'll be easy to think that dozing is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix following poor sleep, but a shortcut to improved recall, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Professional soccer players swear by it – and so are concert pianists, fighters & business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the hassle? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a leading circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, essentially what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, when you are anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for instance during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which simply is about the wish: you have a chance to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – such as, when you are a new parent, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be a signal your need for sleep is not where required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research on the subject, experts noted that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there regarding the ideal number for sleeping, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “The science suggests it's more effective to take an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for a long period, it will affect your sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Perfect Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest employing similar routines one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting happens to be around – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive available to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if you’re trying to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
