The Key to a Flawless Nap: Timing, Location and Duration?
Listen to enough productivity gurus, making it simple to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after poor sleep, but a path towards a better memory, better spirits and possibly quicker running times. Professional soccer players swear by it – and so are professional piano players, fighters and business leaders. But if you lack a special sleep space or a career that permits frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to merit the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling refreshed, not worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep for many people,” says a professor of sleep science professor. “One is known as recovery napping, which is what you do after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating sleep loss coming up, for instance during overnight shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to desire: you get a chance to doze in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to consider, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons you cannot change – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “However, if you take a nap since your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the priority must always be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that napping must not be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (based on when you sleep in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts discovered that space travelers had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around about the ideal number of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science indicates it’s better to take a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you take it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it can influence how you sleep in the evening.”
Creating the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals propose employing similar routines you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to just doze in a chair in the existing light is present – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your bed as the place your mind associates with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive available to initiate sleep in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without a timer, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should options are scarce – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “When I’m working with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will