Tune into enough productivity gurus, and you'll be tempting to think that dozing is a powerful tool: rather than a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, better spirits and possibly a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players are all at it – along with professional piano players, fighters and business leaders. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will arise feeling better, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep among most adults,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science professor. “One is what we call recovery napping, which is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example when working overnight shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to the wish: you have a chance to sleep during the day, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The primary task to consider, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – for instance, for caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that’s often a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that naps shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your overnight rest, and best should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on the time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study on the subject, experts noted that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around about the perfect length of time, yet that often make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science suggests it’s better to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – whereas if you nap for slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it can influence your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. Some experts suggest employing similar routines you use to promote restful sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that it's fine to just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There must be some sleep pressure there to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and naturally wake up alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate a moment that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
