Tune into plenty of productivity experts, making it easy to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to improved recall, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Professional footballers are all at it – as do concert pianists, fighters and high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or employment that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, not worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for napping for many people,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, which is the action you take following poor sleep overnight. Another is pre-emptive sleep, where you are anticipating sleep loss in the future, such as during graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically boils down to the wish: you get an opportunity to doze during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – such as, for a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “However, if you nap as your night sleep is unstable or poor, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
Therefore that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there regarding the perfect length of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more anxious above all – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when trying to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science indicates it's more effective to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – whereas if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. Some experts recommend adopting comparable habits you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Others suggest that you should simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination there to initiate sleep initially. I can usually snooze during the day and awaken on my own alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for a moment when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to grab 40 winks on a train or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use some accessories. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
