Tune into a few performance podcasters, and it’s tempting to think that napping is a superpower: more than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a shortcut towards a better memory, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Premier League soccer players swear by it – as do professional piano players, UFC champions and high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or employment that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling better, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes an expert sleep science specialist. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, which is what happens after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. The second is pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about the wish: you have a chance to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is to examine why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for example, for a new parent, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap as your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that naps must not be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur after about 3pm (depending on when you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. Among a prominent study about napping, experts noted that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this included a six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the ideal number of time, however, that can make people feel more worried above all – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research would say it is preferable to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – while if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
When it comes to precise methods, advice differs. A few professionals suggest adopting similar routines one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the space your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and practically command yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without an alarm, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should options are scarce – such as, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
