Hear plenty of performance podcasters, and it’s easy to think that dozing is a powerful tool: more than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards a better memory, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will get up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “One is termed compensatory napping, essentially what happens after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep ahead, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to wanting: you have a moment to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The first thing to do, so, is consider your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors beyond your control – for example, for a new parent, or recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you’re napping as your night sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the main goal must always be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping must not be long enough to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (contingent on when you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there concerning the ideal number of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “Research would say it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – however, if you nap for slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
When it comes to specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals propose adopting similar routines one would use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a cozy bed and minimal light as possible. Some advise that you should just doze on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to will,” notes a sleep coach. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. You need some drive present to start the process to begin with. I can usually take a nap during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps a lot of people is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – such as, if attempting to grab a quick nap while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will
