Listen to plenty of self-improvement experts, making it easy to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid following restless night, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Professional athletes do it regularly – along with professional piano players, fighters & media moguls. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a job that permits frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the effort? Can you find a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, instead of groggy?
Understanding The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” explains an expert circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is termed make-up sleep, which is what you do following poor sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, such as when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply boils down to wanting: there is a chance to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that can be an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal ought to remain a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
Therefore that naps must not be too extended to affect your overnight rest, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (contingent on what time you go to bed at night). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, experts found that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off quickly,” notes a specialist. “You'll find much recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research indicates it's more effective to opt for 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 send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you take it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. A few professionals propose using similar routines you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap in a chair in whatever light is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the place your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says an expert. “Without any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and practically tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without an alarm, but what helps most folks is to wait for a time when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – such as, if attempting to grab a quick nap on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
