Tune into plenty of self-improvement experts, making it easy to convince yourself that napping is a secret weapon: more than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a route to improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite soccer players do it regularly – along with professional piano players, mixed martial artists and business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a special sleep space or a career that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes an expert sleep science professor. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, that is what you do after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit ahead, such as during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about wanting: you get a moment to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to do, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – such as, for caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often an indicator your sleep drive is not where it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the priority should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This means that napping must not be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and ideally should not occur post-3 p.m. (based on the time you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. From the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around about the ideal number for sleeping, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Studies suggests it's more effective to opt for a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting similar routines one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and as much darkness as is feasible. Some advise that it's fine to simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” notes a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some sleep pressure present to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to wait for a time where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – for example, if attempting to fit in a quick nap during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
