Listen to plenty of performance experts, making it easy to believe that dozing is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster after restless night, but a shortcut to a better memory, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, fighters & media moguls. Yet, when you lack a dedicated nap-room or employment that allows frequent naps, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap in the adult population,” says a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, which is what happens following a lack of sleep the previous night. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves preparing for insufficient sleep in the future, such as if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which basically boils down to the wish: there is a moment to nap in the daytime, and it's pleasant to do it.”
The primary task to consider, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a new parent, or you’re recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not at the level required. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Use napping as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that napping must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (based on when you go to bed in the evening). How long is sensible? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research about napping, experts discovered that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there regarding the ideal number of minutes, however, that can make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to fall asleep is to be anxious.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science would say it's more effective to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – however, if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep later that night.”
Creating the Perfect Nap Environment
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest using comparable habits you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on the sofa in the existing light is present – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bed as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some drive present to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – for instance, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye on a train or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
