The Secret to a Flawless Kip: Timing, Location & Duration?
Listen to enough self-improvement experts, making it tempting to believe that dozing is a secret weapon: more than a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and maybe quicker running times. Elite footballers are all at it – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Is there a reliable way to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Nap Motivation
“There are three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” says a leading sleep science professor. “The first is termed recovery napping, which is what happens after experiencing poor sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, when you are anticipating a sleep deficit coming up, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially boils down to the wish: you have a chance to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when overnight rest is being disrupted because of factors you cannot change – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not where it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally should not occur in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, space agency scientists discovered that crew members had up to a 54% increase in alertness and a 34% increase in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “My advice is using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the ideal number of time, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to get to sleep is worry about it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “The science would say it’s better to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to plunge you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while 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 awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you're dozing for 90 minutes, it can influence your sleep that night.”
Creating the Right Nap Environment
Regarding exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. A few professionals suggest adopting similar routines one would use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Some advise that you should simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the place you associate with nighttime rest. “Napping is notoriously difficult to command,” notes an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to recline and basically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on to begin with. I can usually snooze during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to wait for a time that they’re naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and if options are scarce – such as, when aiming to squeeze in 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I advise that they not rely on sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
