Tune into a few self-improvement experts, and it’s simple to think that dozing is a superpower: more than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or a job that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to merit the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” explains a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “One is what we call recovery napping, that is what you do following a lack of sleep the night before. Another is pre-emptive sleep, when you are preparing for sleep loss in the future, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply is about the wish: there is a moment to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to consider, therefore, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “Yet when you take a nap because your night sleep is unstable or broken, that’s often a signal your sleep drive is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From a prominent study about napping, experts noted that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest using an alarm for half an hour or less – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep coach. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, however, that can cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research suggests it's more effective to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the place your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and basically command yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive present to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to wait for a time where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – for instance, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with footballers, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
