Tune into plenty of performance experts, and it’s easy to believe that napping is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers are all at it – and so are professional piano players, fighters & business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that permits frequent naps, is it *truly* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Does there exist a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding Your Reasons for Napping
“Experts note three key drivers for daytime sleep in the adult population,” notes a professor of sleep science researcher. “One is termed recovery napping, essentially what happens after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves anticipating sleep loss in the future, for instance during graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically is about wanting: there is a moment to doze in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”
The initial step to consider, so, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be really helpful when overnight rest gets interrupted because of factors outside your control – such as, for a new parent, or recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap as your nighttime sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, napping can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Use napping as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Length
This means that napping shouldn’t be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on when you sleep overnight). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research about napping, space agency scientists found that space travelers showed a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (technically, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations about the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more stressed above all – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to take an extended nap, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies would say it's more effective to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into deep sleep and you’re more likely to feel groggy when you get up – while if you take it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. However, if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Finding the Right Snooze Setting
As for specific techniques, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest employing similar routines you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bedroom as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically command yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep initially. I can usually take a nap in full light and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps most folks is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – for instance, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to employ a few tools. “Coaching elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
