The Secret to a Perfect Nap: Timing, Where & Duration?
Listen to enough productivity experts, making it tempting to believe that napping is a superpower: more than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, better spirits and perhaps quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – along with concert pianists, UFC champions and media moguls. But if you don't have a room for napping or a career that encourages daytime sleep, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling better, not worse?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” explains a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is known as recovery napping, that is what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for sleep loss coming up, such as if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially boils down to desire: you have a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The initial step to consider, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap since your sleep at night feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not where required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that naps ought not to be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (based on the time you retire at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From a prominent study about napping, space agency scientists discovered that astronauts experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around concerning the perfect length of minutes, however, that can make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when attempting to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “The science indicates it's more effective to opt for a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you nap for a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend using similar routines you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze in a chair in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the space you associate with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” says a sleep coach. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination present to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps most folks is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – such as, when aiming to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
