Listen to enough performance podcasters, and it’s easy to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a band-aid following restless night, but a route to enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Professional soccer players swear by it – along with musicians, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. But if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, not worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for napping in the adult population,” explains an expert sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's known as compensatory napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, where you are anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to desire: you have a moment to sleep during the day, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, for a new parent, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap because your night sleep feels fragile or broken, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that napping ought not to be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur after about 3pm (based on the time you sleep overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies about napping, experts discovered that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% increase in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious above all – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science would say it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for a long period, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose adopting comparable habits you’d use to foster a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should simply nap on the sofa in the existing light happens to be around – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” says an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to nod off. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to start the process in the first place. Personally, I can often nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to look for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – for example, when aiming to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
