Hear enough productivity experts, and you'll be simple to believe that napping is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes swear by it – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and media moguls. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or a career that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep to merit the effort? Is there a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says a leading sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, essentially what happens following poor sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for example when working overnight shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about desire: you have an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The primary task to consider, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you nap because your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus must always be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (depending on what time you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa found that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Studies would say it is preferable to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more alert. Though if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting
Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Some experts propose using the same protocol you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the space your brain links with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to command,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to recline and practically tell yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive available to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
