Hear plenty of productivity podcasters, and you'll be tempting to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix following poor sleep, but a path towards a better memory, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players do it regularly – as do professional piano players, fighters & media moguls. But if you lack a room for napping or a career that encourages frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a professor of sleep science professor. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, essentially what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are anticipating a sleep deficit in the future, such as when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: you get an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for instance, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap since your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be a signal your sleep drive is not where it needs to be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
Therefore that naps shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (depending on when you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, space agency scientists found that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute long nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals fall asleep in under ten minutes,” says a specialist. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the ideal number of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do when attempting to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “Research would say it's more effective to have an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a full cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits one would use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says a sleep coach. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when options are scarce – for example, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
