Listen to a few productivity podcasters, making it simple to think that dozing is a superpower: more than a band-aid following restless night, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes are all at it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you lack a room for napping or a career that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the effort? Is there a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” explains an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, which is the action you take after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, when you are anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for instance if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to desire: you get an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted because of factors outside your control – for example, if you’re a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the focus must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This means that napping must not be too extended to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on what time you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists noted that space travelers showed a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there about the ideal number of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science suggests it’s better to have a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Some experts suggest employing comparable habits one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as is feasible. Some advise that one could merely snooze on a couch in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to start the process to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to look for an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to grab 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ some accessories. “When I’m working with footballers, I suggest that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
