Tune into a few productivity podcasters, and it’s simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Elite athletes do it regularly – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or a career that allows daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a reliable way to nod off promptly? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three key drivers for napping among most adults,” says a leading sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is what we call recovery napping, essentially what happens when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are anticipating a sleep deficit ahead, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to wanting: there is an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to do, so, is to examine why you want to nap. “Napping can be really helpful when overnight rest is being disrupted because of factors beyond your control – such as, for a new parent, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or broken, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the priority must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This implies that napping ought not to be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on the time you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. Among the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists noted that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do when attempting to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science indicates it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the professor. “45 minutes is sufficient to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep that night.”
Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists recommend using comparable habits you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Some advise that it's fine to simply nap on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to command,” says an expert. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. You need some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and awaken on my own alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and should you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
