The Secret to an Ideal Nap: When, Where & for How Long?
Tune into a few productivity experts, and it’s easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid following poor sleep, but a shortcut towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and maybe quicker running times. Premier League soccer players are all at it – along with musicians, UFC champions & business leaders. Yet, when you don't have a room for napping or a job that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling better, rather than worse?
Identifying The Nap Motivation
“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” explains an expert sleep science specialist. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, which is the action you take following a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, such as during on night shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which simply is about the wish: there is a chance to nap in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed for reasons outside your control – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep specialist. “Yet when you’re napping since your sleep at night feels fragile or poor, that can be an indicator your sleep drive is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the main goal should still be a robust and regular overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on what time you go to bed at night). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this involved a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There is plenty of guidance out there about the ideal number of minutes, however, that can lead individuals to become more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “The science indicates it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a full cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep that night.”
Establishing the Perfect Sleep Space
Regarding specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists suggest employing comparable habits you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bedroom as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly relax into it.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to grab some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable with bringing some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will
