Hear enough productivity experts, and you'll be tempting to think that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a band-aid following restless night, but a path towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and perhaps improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players do it regularly – and so are musicians, UFC champions and business leaders. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that encourages frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep for many people,” says an expert circadian rhythm specialist. “One is what we call compensatory napping, that is what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep in the future, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about desire: you get a chance to nap during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to do, so, is to think about your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for example, for a new parent, or recovering after being ill or intense exercise,” explains a sleep expert. “However, if you nap since your sleep at night feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a sign your sleep drive is not where it should be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping ought not to be too extended to affect your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur after about 3pm (based on the time you retire in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. Among a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists found that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in task performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the ideal number of minutes, yet that often make people feel more worried above all – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies indicates it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you nap for a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. Though if you’re sleeping for a long period, it may impact your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose using similar routines one would use to foster restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that you should just doze on a couch in whatever light happens to be around – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the space you associate with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” notes an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. You need some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate a time that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should options are scarce – for example, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing some accessories. “In my work with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
