The Secret to a Perfect Snooze: Timing, Location & for How Long?
Hear a few performance gurus, making it easy to convince yourself that napping is a secret weapon: more than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a path to improved recall, improved mood and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite footballers are all at it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. But if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to merit the hassle? Does there exist a dependable method to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“There are three main reasons for daytime sleep for many people,” notes a professor of sleep science researcher. “One is what we call make-up sleep, which is what you do following poor sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting sleep loss coming up, for example when working on night shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to the wish: there is a moment to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
The primary task to consider, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed because of factors outside your control – for example, if you’re a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “However, if you nap since your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that can be a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This means that naps must not be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and preferably are not recommended post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you sleep in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists found that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off quickly,” explains a specialist. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the ideal number of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research suggests it's more effective to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is sufficient to put you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you nap for slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
As for specific techniques, advice differs. Some experts recommend employing the same protocol you use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair in the existing light is available – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to will,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and essentially instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive available to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually nap during the day and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and if you have few options – for example, if attempting to fit in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
