Tune into enough self-improvement podcasters, making it easy to believe that napping is a secret weapon: not just a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route to a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do professional piano players, fighters and business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a room for napping or a career that encourages frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “One is termed compensatory napping, essentially what you do following poor sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, such as when working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply is about wanting: there is a moment to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to do, then, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep expert. “Yet when you nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, naps can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This means that daytime sleep must not be too extended to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on when you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there concerning the optimal amount for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science suggests it’s better to take an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts recommend adopting similar routines you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to simply nap on a couch in the existing light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” explains a specialist. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to nod off. You need some drive present to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks during a commute or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
