Tune into enough self-improvement gurus, making it easy to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a route to a better memory, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Premier League athletes do it regularly – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. However, if you lack a room for napping or a job that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” says an expert circadian rhythm professor. “One is termed recovery napping, which is what you do following poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating sleep loss in the future, for instance during overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which basically comes down to wanting: you have an opportunity to sleep in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The first thing to do, so, is consider why you want to nap. “Napping can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping 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, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority ought to remain a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your overnight rest, and best should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on when you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research would say it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy when you wake up – whereas if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a natural sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Nap Environment
Regarding exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals recommend using the same protocol you use to promote restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could just doze in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the environment you associate with proper sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to command,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically command yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep initially. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if you have few options – for example, if attempting to grab 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
