Hear enough self-improvement podcasters, and it’s easy to believe that dozing is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, better spirits and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Professional athletes are all at it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & business leaders. However, if you lack a room for napping or a job that encourages regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is known as recovery napping, which is the action you take following a lack of sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep in the future, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which basically is about wanting: you have a moment to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons outside your control – for example, for a new parent, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as required. In those cases, naps can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This implies that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on the time you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. From the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists found that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around regarding the ideal number of time, however, that can make people feel more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action you can possibly do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “Studies would say it is preferable to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – however, if you nap for a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Right Nap Environment
Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals propose using the same protocol you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” says an expert. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to start the process initially. I can usually take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – for instance, when aiming to fit in a quick nap on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
