Listen to enough productivity gurus, making it easy to believe that a nap is a superpower: more than a band-aid after restless night, but a path towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Professional footballers are all at it – as do musicians, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, essentially the action you take following a lack of sleep overnight. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are anticipating a sleep deficit ahead, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about the wish: there is an opportunity to doze in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to think about why you want to nap. “Naps can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap since your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the focus must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that naps must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on the time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, experts found that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep quickly,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around regarding the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried above all – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science indicates it’s better to have an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – while if you extend it a little longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to finish a full cycle and will probably awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect your sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts propose employing the same protocol one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze in a chair in the existing light is present – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bed as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. You need some drive available to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up alarm-free, but what helps most folks is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – it is perfectly fine with bringing a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
