Tune into plenty of performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to believe that a nap is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, fighters and business leaders. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to merit the hassle? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for napping for many people,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, essentially what you do following poor sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for example during graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which simply comes down to the wish: you get an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it feels nice to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – such as, if you’re a new parent, or recovering from illness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur after about 3pm (based on when you go to bed at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists found that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep quickly,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “The science suggests it's more effective to opt for a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you nap for a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists recommend adopting the same protocol you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bedroom as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to recline and practically command yourself to nod off. You need some drive available to start the process to begin with. I can usually nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to look for a moment that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for example, if attempting to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing sleep aids. “In my work with elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
