The Key for a Perfect Snooze: When, Location & Duration?
Listen to a few self-improvement experts, making it simple to believe that napping is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a route towards improved recall, better spirits and maybe improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – as do musicians, UFC champions & business leaders. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep for many people,” says a professor of circadian rhythm professor. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, essentially what you do when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, where you are pre-empting a sleep deficit in the future, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to wanting: there is an opportunity to doze in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The first thing to do, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons outside your control – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you nap because your nighttime sleep is unstable or broken, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Employ naps for brief periods for short-term problems – the main goal should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and preferably shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (contingent on what time you go to bed overnight). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, experts found that crew members had improvements of over 50% in vigilance plus a 34% rise in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep in under ten minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the optimal amount of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious above all – and the most counterproductive thing you can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies would say it’s better to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – however, if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you nap for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
As for specific techniques, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest adopting the same protocol you use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to just doze in a chair with ambient lighting is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a sleep coach. “Lacking any sleepiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically tell yourself to nod off. There must be a natural inclination there to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to wait for an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for example, when aiming to grab some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will