Hear plenty of self-improvement experts, making it easy to believe that dozing is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid following restless night, but a path to enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Elite athletes do it regularly – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to justify the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” says an expert sleep and circadian science researcher. “The first is termed make-up sleep, which is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep overnight. Another is preparatory napping, when you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, such as if you’re working on night shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply comes down to the wish: you get a chance to sleep during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to do, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap since your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that napping shouldn’t be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (based on the time you retire in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this involved a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “You'll find much advice around about the optimal amount of time, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies would say it’s better to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to finish a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for a long period, it will affect how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the environment you associate with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” explains a specialist. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and basically command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to start the process initially. I can usually snooze during the day and naturally wake up without an alarm, however, what assists most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when your choices are limited – for instance, if you’re trying to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
