Listen to plenty of performance podcasters, making it tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after restless night, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers swear by it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a room for napping or a job that encourages frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling improved, rather than worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping for many people,” says an expert sleep science researcher. “One is known as recovery napping, which is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting a sleep deficit coming up, such as when working overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: you have an opportunity to nap in the daytime, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The primary task to do, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – for instance, when you are a new parent, or recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep expert. “But if you’re napping since your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that’s often a signal your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (based on the time you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts found that space travelers experienced improvements of over 50% in alertness and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved a six-minute long sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can make people feel more stressed than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state upon waking. “Studies suggests it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you get up – however, if you nap for a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to finish a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest employing comparable habits one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that one could just doze on the sofa in the existing light is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Napping is notoriously difficult to force,” says a sleep coach. “Without any drowsiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. You need some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on initially. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps a lot of people is to look for a time where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – such as, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they not rely on napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
