The Key to a Flawless Nap: Timing, Where & for How Long?
Hear a few self-improvement podcasters, and it’s tempting to believe that napping is a superpower: rather than a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut towards a better memory, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists and media moguls. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a career that permits frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Is there a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science researcher. “One is known as recovery napping, that is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, for instance when working on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to the wish: there is an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The first thing to do, so, is consider why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – such as, for a new parent, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that’s often an indicator your sleep drive is not where it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Employ naps for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
Therefore that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on when you sleep at night). How long is sensible? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts experienced a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% increase in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around about the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more worried than anything – and the worst thing one can do when attempting to fall asleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science suggests it's more effective to have an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to finish a full cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals propose adopting similar routines you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to will,” says an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to recline and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some drive there to start the process initially. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and awaken on my own alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks on a train or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
