Listen to a few productivity gurus, and you'll be easy to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite athletes are all at it – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. Yet, when you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a job that permits regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Is there a dependable method to nod off promptly? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap for many people,” says an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “One is what we call make-up sleep, that is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for example during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially comes down to wanting: there is a chance to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The primary task to undertake, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping because your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that can be a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on the time you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among a prominent study about napping, experts found that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “The science indicates it’s better to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting the same protocol you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that one could just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to avoid that groggy feeling and to maintain your bed as the space your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” says a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and basically command yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to anticipate a time where they feel naturally slightly tired and just gently allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when options are scarce – for instance, if attempting to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to employ a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
