Hear plenty of productivity experts, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that napping is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut to improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Professional footballers do it regularly – as do concert pianists, mixed martial artists and business leaders. But if you lack a special sleep space or a career that encourages daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Can you find a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you honestly promise you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for napping among most adults,” says a professor of sleep science professor. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, essentially what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting sleep loss coming up, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which basically is about desire: there is a chance to sleep during the day, and it's enjoyable to do it.”
The first thing to consider, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons beyond your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you take a nap since your sleep at night seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that napping ought not to be too extended to affect your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you sleep at night). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. From the most-cited studies on the subject, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (to be precise, this included a six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority are asleep within 10 minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations about the ideal number of time, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science would say it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to plunge you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and should get up feeling more alert. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Nap Environment
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts recommend employing similar routines one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that it's fine to merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to start the process initially. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate a moment where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
Experimentation is key, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to fit in 40 winks on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it is perfectly fine to employ sleep aids. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
