Hear plenty of performance gurus, making it tempting to believe that napping is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid after restless night, but a route to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe quicker running times. Elite footballers do it regularly – along with concert pianists, fighters and high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that encourages daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a short sleep to merit the hassle? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying The Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three main reasons for napping among most adults,” says a professor of sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, that is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is preparatory napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for instance if you’re working on night shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to desire: you get a chance to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed due to causes beyond your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not as strong as required. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that napping must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your overnight rest, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on the time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the ideal number of time, but that tends to make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Studies indicates it’s better to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend employing similar routines you use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to just doze in a chair in whatever light is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your bed as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to command,” says a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to recline and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when options are scarce – for instance, when aiming to grab some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
