Listen to plenty of performance gurus, making it tempting to think that dozing is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Premier League soccer players swear by it – as do professional piano players, fighters & business leaders. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages daytime sleep, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to merit the effort? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three main reasons for taking a nap among most adults,” notes an expert sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's known as make-up sleep, essentially what happens when you’ve had poor sleep overnight. The second is pre-emptive sleep, where you are preparing for insufficient sleep coming up, for example during graveyard shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about wanting: you have a chance to sleep in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The primary task to do, then, is to think about why you want to nap. “Napping can be truly beneficial when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – such as, if you’re caring for an infant, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep expert. “Yet when you nap as your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In such situations, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
Therefore that daytime sleep must not be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (based on when you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers had a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this counted a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more anxious than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to get to sleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research indicates it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more refreshed. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, advice differs. Certain specialists propose using similar routines one would use to foster a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that it's fine to merely snooze on a couch in the existing light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bed as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, though, what aids many individuals is to look for a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if your choices are limited – such as, if attempting to grab 40 winks during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable to employ sleep aids. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, since they’re going to have|they will
