The Secret to an Ideal Snooze: When, Where and Duration?
Listen to enough productivity experts, and you'll be easy to believe that napping is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a path to a better memory, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Premier League athletes do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists and business leaders. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three key drivers for napping for many people,” explains a leading sleep science specialist. “The first is termed make-up sleep, which is what you do when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, such as during overnight shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to wanting: you get a moment to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that napping shouldn’t be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on when you sleep in the evening). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty 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 you can do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “Research would say it's more effective to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – however, if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Sleep Space
As for precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists propose using the same protocol one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap in a chair in the existing light is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment you associate with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to will,” says a sleep coach. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, though, what aids many individuals is to look for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – for instance, if attempting to grab some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
