Tune into plenty of performance podcasters, making it tempting to think that a nap is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix following poor sleep, but a path to a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe quicker running times. Elite athletes are all at it – as do professional piano players, UFC champions and business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the kerfuffle? Can you find a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you truly ensure you will arise feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“Experts note three main reasons for daytime sleep among most adults,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is termed make-up sleep, that is the action you take following a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for sleep loss in the future, for instance when working overnight shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you have a chance to nap during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Napping can be really helpful when overnight rest gets interrupted for reasons you cannot change – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (contingent on what time you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that crew members experienced up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of advice around about the perfect length of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies indicates it’s better to take an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
Regarding exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest using the same protocol one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that you should merely snooze in a chair in whatever light is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive available to start the process to begin with. I can usually snooze during the day and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to look for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should your choices are limited – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
