Hear enough productivity podcasters, and it’s simple to convince yourself that dozing is a powerful tool: rather than a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League soccer players are all at it – and so are professional piano players, fighters and media moguls. Yet, when you haven’t got a special sleep space or employment that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep in the adult population,” notes a leading sleep science specialist. “One is termed compensatory napping, that is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example when working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about desire: you get a moment to doze during the day, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, therefore, is consider why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap as your night sleep seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level it should 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 solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on when you sleep overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists noted that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the ideal number of minutes, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies suggests it’s better to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – however, if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting
Regarding specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest using similar routines you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on a couch in whatever light is present – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the space your brain links with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and practically tell yourself to fall asleep. You need some sleep pressure available to start the process in the first place. I can usually snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to wait for a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – for example, if you’re trying to grab some shut-eye on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
