Listen to plenty of performance gurus, and it’s easy to think that napping is a powerful tool: more than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and perhaps quicker running times. Premier League footballers swear by it – along with concert pianists, UFC champions & high-profile executives. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a career that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Can you find a surefire technique to nod off promptly? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a leading sleep science professor. “One is what we call recovery napping, essentially the action you take when you’ve had poor sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, when you are anticipating a sleep deficit in the future, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to desire: you get a chance to sleep during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to consider, therefore, is consider your nap motivation. “Napping can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – for example, when you are a parent of a newborn, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping since your sleep at night seems unreliable or broken, that can be a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it needs to be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This implies that napping ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your sleep at night, and ideally are not recommended after about 3pm (depending on when you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that crew members experienced improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting an alarm for half an hour or less – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around regarding the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to lead individuals to become more stressed than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to have a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for an hour and a half, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. Certain specialists recommend employing comparable habits you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on a couch in whatever light is available – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your bedroom as the environment your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to will,” notes a specialist. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to recline and essentially tell yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – for instance, if attempting to fit in a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use some accessories. “Coaching footballers, I advise that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
