The Formula to an Ideal Nap: Timing, Location and for How Long?
Hear plenty of productivity gurus, and it’s tempting to think that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Premier League soccer players do it regularly – along with musicians, fighters & media moguls. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a professor of circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is known as compensatory napping, essentially the action you take when you’ve had a lack of sleep overnight. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, such as when working overnight shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which basically boils down to wanting: you get an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that can be a signal your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This implies that napping ought not to be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (contingent on the time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can make people feel more worried above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research suggests it is preferable to opt for a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you get up – whereas if you nap for slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end of a sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest using the same protocol one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that you should simply nap in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your bed as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and practically command yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive available to start the process in the first place. I can usually take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, however, what assists most folks is to wait for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when options are scarce – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
