Tune into a few productivity podcasters, and you'll be easy to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Professional footballers swear by it – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you will arise feeling better, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep among most adults,” explains a leading sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, that is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the previous night. Another is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for sleep loss ahead, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which basically is about the wish: there is a chance to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest gets interrupted because of factors you cannot change – for instance, for caring for an infant, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that is frequently an indicator your need for sleep is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of advice around about the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Research indicates it’s better to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the expert. “45 minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel groggy upon awakening – while if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Sleep Space
As for precise methods, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals recommend employing similar routines you’d use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that one could just doze in a chair with ambient lighting happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the place your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” explains a specialist. “Without any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and basically command yourself to nod off. You need some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and naturally wake up alarm-free, but what helps many individuals is to look for a moment where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for instance, when aiming to grab some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
