Tune into a few performance podcasters, making it easy to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: more than a band-aid after restless night, but a shortcut towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers are all at it – as do professional piano players, fighters & high-profile executives. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that allows daytime sleep, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to merit the hassle? Is there a dependable method to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science professor. “One is termed recovery napping, that is what happens when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. Another is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which simply boils down to wanting: there is a chance to sleep during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap because your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that’s often a sign your sleep drive is not where it needs to be. Under those circumstances, naps can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the priority should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that napping shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you go to bed at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. Among a prominent study about napping, experts found that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this included a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep quickly,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the perfect length of time, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to nod off is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Studies suggests it’s better to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Some experts propose using comparable habits one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and practically command yourself to nod off. You need some drive there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often nap during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – for instance, if attempting to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
