🔗 Share this article

Hear plenty of productivity experts, and you'll be easy to convince yourself that a nap is a powerful tool: rather than a quick fix after poor sleep, but a shortcut to improved recall, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers swear by it – and so are concert pianists, fighters & high-profile executives. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or employment that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to justify the hassle? Is there a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, instead of groggy?

Understanding Your Reasons for Napping

“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” explains a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is known as compensatory napping, which is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, such as during overnight shifts. The third is called “hedonic napping”, which simply comes down to desire: you have a moment to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to indulge.”

The primary task to undertake, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes you cannot change – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep expert. “However, if you’re napping as your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that’s often a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the focus must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”

The Optimal Nap Length

Therefore that daytime sleep must not be long enough to interfere with your nighttime sleep, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (depending on the time you sleep in the evening). How long is sensible? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep coach. “There is plenty of guidance out there regarding the ideal number of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”

If you’re going to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the period between 45 and 60 minutes that promotes sleep inertia, that foggy state when you awaken. “Studies suggests it is preferable to take a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is sufficient to send you into slow-wave sleep and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you get up – while if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. Though if you’re sleeping for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”

Establishing the Right Snooze Setting

As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts recommend employing comparable habits you use to promote restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that it's fine to merely snooze in a chair in the existing light is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to command,” says a sleep coach. “Lacking the urge to sleep, it becomes harder to recline and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure available to bring the sleep on initially. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally somewhat sleepy and just gently allow sleep to come.”

Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – for example, if you’re trying to squeeze in some shut-eye during a commute or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use some accessories. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will