Tune into a few performance experts, making it easy to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster following a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, better spirits and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional footballers swear by it – along with musicians, fighters & business leaders. Yet, when you lack a special sleep space or employment that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will arise feeling better, instead of groggy?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” notes an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, that is what you do after experiencing poor sleep overnight. The second is preparatory napping, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit ahead, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply boils down to desire: there is an opportunity to nap during the day, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The first thing to consider, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a new parent, or you’re recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep expert. “Yet when you’re napping because your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it needs to be. In such situations, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (depending on when you retire overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research about napping, experts discovered that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in vigilance and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included a six-minute long nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state upon waking. “The science would say it is preferable to have a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you get up – however, if you nap for slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it may impact how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, advice differs. A few professionals suggest employing the same protocol you use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in the existing light is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bedroom as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to force,” says a specialist. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive available to initiate sleep in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze in full light and naturally wake up alarm-free, though, what aids most folks is to anticipate an instance that they’re naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – such as, when aiming to grab some shut-eye during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ some accessories. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
