Hear a few productivity podcasters, and it’s simple to think that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a route towards a better memory, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players are all at it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & high-profile executives. But if you don't have a room for napping or a job that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science researcher. “One is what we call compensatory napping, which is the action you take after experiencing poor sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss coming up, such as when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about the wish: you get a chance to doze in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The initial step to consider, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep is unstable or unreliable, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur after about 3pm (based on what time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Advice differs. From the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members showed up to a 54% increase in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority are asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the perfect length of minutes, however, that can cause people to feel more anxious above all – and the least helpful action you can do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science indicates it is preferable to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the expert. “45 minutes is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
When it comes to precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists recommend adopting comparable habits one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in the existing light is present – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive present to bring the sleep on in the first place. I can usually take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without an alarm, though, what aids most folks is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – such as, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing a few tools. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
