Tune into enough self-improvement experts, and it’s easy to think that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – along with concert pianists, UFC champions & business leaders. However, if you haven’t got a special sleep space or employment that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” notes a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is known as recovery napping, essentially what happens after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves preparing for sleep loss in the future, for instance during overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply is about the wish: you get an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “Yet when you nap as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
Therefore that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on when you go to bed at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers showed a boost of up to 54% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the ideal number of minutes, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies indicates it’s better to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and should get up feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for a long period, it may impact the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using similar routines you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the space your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to force,” notes a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for a moment where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – for example, when aiming to fit in 40 winks while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
