The Secret for a Perfect Nap: Timing, Location and Duration?
Listen to enough self-improvement experts, making it simple to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards a better memory, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do professional piano players, fighters & business leaders. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or a career that allows frequent naps, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to merit the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three key drivers for napping among most adults,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science professor. “One is termed compensatory napping, essentially the action you take following insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to desire: there is an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The first thing to do, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – such as, if you’re a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep specialist. “However, if you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the priority must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This implies that napping shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on when you retire in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From a prominent study on the subject, experts discovered that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around regarding the ideal number of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “The science indicates it’s better to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the expert. “45 minutes is sufficient to send you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – however, if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Right Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists propose adopting similar routines you use to foster a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that you should just doze on a couch in the existing light is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to will,” says a specialist. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to recline and practically command yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure available to start the process in the first place. I can usually snooze in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to wait for a time when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab a quick nap while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use some accessories. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will