Tune into a few productivity experts, and you'll be simple to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: rather than a band-aid following restless night, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe quicker running times. Professional footballers are all at it – as do concert pianists, mixed martial artists & media moguls. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a job that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a reliable way to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep among most adults,” says a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, essentially what you do after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for example during overnight shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which simply comes down to the wish: you get a chance to sleep in the afternoon, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The primary task to consider, therefore, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be really helpful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – such as, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This means that naps must not be too extended to disrupt your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on when you go to bed at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study on the subject, experts found that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the perfect length of time, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you awaken. “Research suggests it's more effective to opt for a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you extend it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you nap for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating the Right Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose using the same protocol one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that one could just doze on the sofa in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the place you associate with proper sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to force,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is tougher to lie down and essentially command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some drive there to start the process initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids most folks is to wait for a time that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in some shut-eye on a train or at the office – it is perfectly fine to employ a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
