Tune into plenty of performance experts, and you'll be easy to think that dozing is a superpower: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, better spirits and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers are all at it – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you don't have a special sleep space or a career that permits regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“Experts note three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” notes a professor of circadian rhythm specialist. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, that is what happens after experiencing a lack of sleep overnight. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are anticipating sleep loss ahead, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to desire: you have a chance to doze during the day, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The initial step to consider, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed because of factors outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap because your night sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a sign your sleep drive is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (depending on when you retire overnight). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” notes a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the ideal number of minutes, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “Research indicates it is preferable to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for a long period, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting
Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals propose using similar routines one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the space your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to will,” notes a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive there to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps most folks is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab some shut-eye during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to employ some accessories. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
