The Key to an Ideal Nap: When, Location and Duration?
Tune into a few self-improvement podcasters, and you'll be easy to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid following restless night, but a path towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Professional footballers are all at it – as do concert pianists, fighters and high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or a career that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to merit the hassle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” notes an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep ahead, for example when working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about wanting: you get an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for instance, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “But if you nap as your sleep at night seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to affect your overnight rest, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on the time you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, experts noted that crew members had up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more worried above all – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science suggests it is preferable to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you extend it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Sleep Space
When it comes to specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals recommend adopting the same protocol one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze in a chair in the existing light happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bedroom as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” notes a specialist. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There must be some drive present to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – such as, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
