Listen to a few self-improvement gurus, and it’s tempting to think that dozing is a superpower: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and possibly quicker running times. Elite soccer players do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that permits daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep to merit the hassle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” explains a professor of sleep science professor. “One is known as compensatory napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing poor sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially is about the wish: there is a moment to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The initial step to undertake, then, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, for a new parent, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on what time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that crew members had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the perfect length of minutes, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “The science would say it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to send you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – however, if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest using the same protocol you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that one could just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” says an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and essentially instruct yourself to nod off. You need a natural inclination there to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to look for a moment when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – for instance, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
