Tune into a few productivity gurus, and you'll be easy to believe that dozing is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and maybe a faster 5k run time. Professional soccer players do it regularly – as do concert pianists, UFC champions & media moguls. But if you don't have a special sleep space or a career that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?
Identifying The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep in the adult population,” notes a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is termed compensatory napping, that is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, where you are anticipating insufficient sleep ahead, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which essentially is about desire: there is an opportunity to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or if you are healing from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap as your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that’s often a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as it should be. In such situations, napping can become a contributing factor, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the main goal must always be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be sufficiently lengthy to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on when you retire overnight). What duration is wise? Guidelines are mixed. From a prominent study on the subject, researchers at Nasa noted that space travelers had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – most people doze off in under ten minutes,” says a specialist. “You'll find much guidance out there regarding the optimal amount for sleeping, however, that can cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies suggests it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you nap for a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep that night.”
Finding an Ideal Sleep Space
As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest employing similar routines one would use to foster restful sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Others suggest that one could simply nap on a couch in whatever light is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is quite challenging to will,” notes a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and practically command yourself to nod off. You need some drive present to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often take a nap during the day and wake up naturally without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly allow sleep to come.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
