The Key to a Perfect Snooze: Timing, Location and for How Long?
Listen to plenty of productivity experts, and it’s simple to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Premier League soccer players swear by it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that permits regular snoozing, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” says an expert sleep and circadian science professor. “The first is known as make-up sleep, essentially what happens after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss coming up, such as if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to wanting: you get an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is consider why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons outside your control – for example, if you’re a new parent, or recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping since your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be a sign your need for sleep is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the priority should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This implies that naps ought not to be too extended to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on what time you sleep overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals doze off in under ten minutes,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more stressed above all – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “The science indicates it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel groggy when you get up – however, if you extend it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Snooze Setting
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists recommend using similar routines you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap on the sofa in the existing light is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to will,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically tell yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive available to initiate sleep in the first place. I can usually take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply allow sleep to come.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if you have few options – for example, if attempting to grab 40 winks while traveling or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I suggest that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will