Tune into enough productivity podcasters, making it easy to believe that dozing is a superpower: more than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a route towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with professional piano players, UFC champions & business leaders. But if you lack a room for napping or a career that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to merit the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap for many people,” notes a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “Firstly, there's what we call recovery napping, which is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for instance during on night shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about desire: you have a chance to doze in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to consider, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – for instance, for caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or broken, that can be an indicator your need for sleep is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This implies that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on the time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. Among the most-cited studies about napping, experts found that space travelers experienced up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” says a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there regarding the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research would say it's more effective to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – however, if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep in the evening.”
Finding an Ideal Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, recommendations vary. A few professionals suggest using similar routines you’d use to promote restful sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as is feasible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze in a chair in whatever light is present – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to nod off. There must be some drive there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze in broad daylight and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids most folks is to look for a time when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – for instance, when aiming to grab some shut-eye during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
