Listen to a few performance podcasters, and it’s easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, mixed martial artists and business leaders. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that encourages frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Identifying The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” says an expert circadian rhythm professor. “The first is known as make-up sleep, which is the action you take following a lack of sleep overnight. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about desire: you get a moment to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap since your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it needs to be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you go to bed in the evening). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations about the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when trying to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies would say it's more effective to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – however, if you nap for a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for a long period, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
Regarding specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest employing comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could just doze on the sofa in whatever light is available – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on in the first place. I can usually nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to look for a moment where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if you have few options – for instance, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
