The Secret to a Perfect Nap: Timing, Where & Duration?
Hear a few performance podcasters, and it’s easy to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after restless night, but a shortcut towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists and media moguls. Yet, when you don't have a room for napping or a job that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Does there exist a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is known as compensatory napping, essentially the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance during on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to desire: you have an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and preferably are not recommended in the late afternoon (depending on what time you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study on the subject, experts noted that space travelers experienced up to a 54% increase in vigilance plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a specialist. “You'll find much guidance out there regarding the optimal amount of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and should get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence how you sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using the same protocol you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that you should simply nap on the sofa in the existing light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – such as, if attempting to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
