Tune into a few self-improvement experts, and it’s easy to believe that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a route towards improved recall, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Premier League footballers do it regularly – as do professional piano players, UFC champions & high-profile executives. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that permits regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for example when working on night shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to wanting: there is a moment to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be really helpful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted for reasons you cannot change – such as, for a new parent, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not where it should be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (based on when you retire overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that crew members had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” notes a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around about the perfect length of time, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science indicates it’s better to have an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep in the evening.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals recommend employing comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that one could merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light is available – to avoid sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is quite challenging to will,” notes a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and practically tell yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to start the process initially. I can usually snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up without a timer, however, what assists a lot of people is to look for a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – such as, when aiming to grab a quick nap while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ some accessories. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
