Tune into plenty of productivity podcasters, and you'll be simple to believe that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid after restless night, but a path to improved recall, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Professional athletes do it regularly – as do musicians, fighters and business leaders. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or a job that encourages regular snoozing, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Is there a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“There are three main reasons for napping for many people,” explains an expert sleep science researcher. “The first is known as compensatory napping, essentially what happens following insufficient sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for example when working on night shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which simply is about wanting: you have a moment to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be a sign your sleep drive is not where it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the main goal should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This means that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and best are not recommended in the late afternoon (contingent on when you go to bed overnight). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists found that crew members had up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research indicates it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you get up – while if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and should wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for a long period, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. Some experts suggest using comparable habits you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. You need some drive available to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, but what helps many individuals is to look for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if you have few options – for example, when aiming to grab a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
