The Key for an Ideal Nap: When, Location and for How Long?
Tune into enough performance podcasters, and it’s simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a path to improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers swear by it – as do musicians, fighters and media moguls. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that encourages daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the kerfuffle? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “One is known as compensatory napping, essentially what you do following poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example if you’re working overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to desire: there is a chance to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap as your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not where required. In those cases, naps can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that naps must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (based on what time you retire at night). How long is sensible? Advice differs. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists noted that astronauts experienced up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% increase in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals fall asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around concerning the perfect length of time, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do when attempting to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science suggests it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is long enough to put you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you nap for slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Establishing the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest adopting similar routines you use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in whatever light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your bedroom as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to will,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when your choices are limited – for instance, when aiming to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ sleep aids. “When I’m working with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
