The Secret for an Ideal Snooze: When, Where & Duration?
Hear enough performance experts, and it’s tempting to think that napping is a powerful tool: not just a sticking plaster following poor sleep, but a path towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and possibly a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers swear by it – as do professional piano players, fighters & business leaders. But if you haven’t got a room for napping or employment that allows regular snoozing, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three primary motivations for napping for many people,” notes a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “One is what we call recovery napping, which is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep overnight. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, such as if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to the wish: you have a moment to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – for instance, when you are a parent of a newborn, or recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap because your nighttime sleep feels fragile or broken, that is frequently an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it needs to be. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Employ naps as a temporary measure to address immediate needs – the focus should still be a solid and consistent sleep at night.”
The Perfect Nap Length
This means that daytime sleep must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (based on what time you go to bed in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest using an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around concerning the perfect length for sleeping, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing you can possibly do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Studies indicates it’s better to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” explains the expert. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented upon awakening – while if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating an Ideal Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts recommend employing similar routines you’d use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that one could simply nap in a chair with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to recline and basically instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need a natural inclination present to start the process in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap in full light and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to squeeze in 40 winks while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will
