Tune into enough productivity experts, making it easy to believe that dozing is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards a better memory, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Professional footballers are all at it – as do musicians, UFC champions and media moguls. But if you lack a room for napping or employment that permits frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the effort? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science researcher. “The first is termed make-up sleep, that is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about desire: there is an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The first thing to consider, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap as your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that’s often a sign your need for sleep is not as strong as it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (based on what time you retire overnight). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, experts discovered that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a specialist. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science indicates it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you nap for a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a full cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists suggest employing the same protocol one would use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on the sofa in whatever light is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the space your brain links with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a sleep coach. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and naturally wake up without an alarm, though, what aids many individuals is to look for a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and if your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to use a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they not rely on their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
