Listen to a few performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to believe that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Premier League soccer players swear by it – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you lack a room for napping or a job that allows daytime sleep, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” says an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's what we call recovery napping, that is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you have a moment to doze in the afternoon, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep expert. “But if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that’s often an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal ought to remain a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that naps shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and best shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science suggests it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists suggest adopting similar routines you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and practically instruct yourself to nod off. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a time where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – for example, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks on a train or at the office – it is perfectly fine to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
