Tune into a few productivity gurus, and it’s tempting to convince yourself that napping is a secret weapon: rather than a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a route to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional athletes are all at it – and so are musicians, fighters and high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a special sleep space or employment that permits frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Exploring Your Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” says a leading sleep and circadian science researcher. “The first is what we call recovery napping, that is what happens after experiencing a lack of sleep the night before. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially boils down to wanting: there is a chance to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The primary task to consider, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes outside your control – for instance, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or recovering from illness or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your sleep drive is not at the level it should be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Ideal Snooze Time
This implies that naps must not be long enough to disrupt your overnight rest, and best are not recommended after about 3pm (based on the time you retire overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most-cited studies about napping, experts found that crew members experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – many individuals doze off quickly,” says a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around regarding the perfect length of minutes, yet that often lead individuals to become more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies suggests it is preferable to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you nap for a little longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts recommend using similar routines you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to just doze on a couch in the existing light is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your bedroom as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” notes an expert. “Lacking any sleepiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to nod off. You need some sleep pressure there to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists most folks is to look for a time where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
