Tune into plenty of productivity podcasters, and it’s easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster following restless night, but a shortcut towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Elite athletes swear by it – as do professional piano players, fighters and media moguls. However, if you lack a room for napping or employment that permits frequent naps, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will get up feeling better, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, essentially what happens when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply is about wanting: there is an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping since your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your need for sleep is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus ought to remain a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This implies that naps shouldn’t be long enough to affect your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (based on when you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research about napping, experts discovered that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Studies would say it is preferable to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “45 minutes is long enough to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas 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 get up feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap on the sofa in the existing light is available – to avoid sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” explains a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive present to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
