The Key to a Perfect Snooze: Timing, Where and for How Long?
Hear enough performance podcasters, making it tempting to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after poor sleep, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes are all at it – as do musicians, fighters & media moguls. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that allows daytime sleep, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Can you find a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling refreshed, not worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“Experts note three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” says a leading circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's termed recovery napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially boils down to the wish: there is a chance to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted because of factors you cannot change – such as, for a new parent, or recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a robust and regular night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
Therefore that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (based on when you go to bed overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. Among a prominent study on the subject, space agency scientists noted that crew members showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people fall asleep quickly,” explains a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the perfect length of time, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to nod off is to be anxious.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science would say it's more effective to have an extended nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” says the expert. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you wake up – while if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you nap for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose using comparable habits you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and essentially instruct yourself to nod off. You need a natural inclination present to start the process initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and awaken on my own without a timer, though, what aids most folks is to look for a moment when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should options are scarce – for example, when aiming to grab some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing some accessories. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
