The Formula for an Ideal Nap: When, Location and Duration?
Tune into plenty of productivity experts, and you'll be simple to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster after restless night, but a shortcut to a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite soccer players do it regularly – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists and media moguls. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or employment that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for napping among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science professor. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, essentially what happens after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, for example when working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially boils down to desire: you get a chance to doze in the daytime, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted due to causes beyond your control – such as, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from sickness or strenuous activity,” explains a sleep expert. “Yet when you’re napping because your night sleep is unstable or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Employ naps as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that daytime sleep ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Advice differs. Among a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa noted that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% increase in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of advice around about the optimal amount of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research indicates it’s better to take an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing of a sleep cycle and will probably wake up feeling more alert. But if you're dozing for a long period, it may impact how you sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts recommend using comparable habits you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as is feasible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze in a chair in the existing light is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the place your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is tougher to lie down and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to bring the sleep on to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate a time when they are naturally slightly tired and just gently relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable to employ some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they not rely on their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
