Hear enough productivity experts, and you'll be easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid following restless night, but a route towards improved recall, improved mood and maybe a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes do it regularly – as do musicians, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” explains a leading circadian rhythm professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, essentially what you do following a lack of sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, for example if you’re working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically boils down to wanting: you have an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to undertake, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – such as, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap since your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This means that daytime sleep ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on what time you go to bed in the evening). How long is sensible? Advice differs. From the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists found that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies would say it’s better to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you extend it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more alert. Though if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting the same protocol one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to lie down and basically command yourself to nod off. You need some drive available to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – such as, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye on a train or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
