The Key to a Perfect Snooze: When, Location & Duration?
Tune into enough performance gurus, making it tempting to think that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after restless night, but a route towards a better memory, a brighter outlook and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional athletes swear by it – as do professional piano players, mixed martial artists & business leaders. Yet, when you lack a room for napping or a career that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will arise feeling improved, instead of groggy?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep for many people,” says a leading sleep science researcher. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, which is what you do when you’ve had a lack of sleep the night before. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically is about the wish: you get an opportunity to nap in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”
The primary task to undertake, then, is consider your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is disturbed because of factors beyond your control – for example, for a new parent, or recovering from sickness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you take a nap since your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where required. In such situations, naps can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for short-term problems – the focus must always be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
Therefore that napping shouldn’t be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably should not occur post-3 p.m. (based on the time you retire in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. From the most referenced research on the subject, experts found that astronauts showed improvements of over 50% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this counted a six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – most people doze off quickly,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the ideal number of time, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when attempting to nod off is to stress over it.”
If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that induces sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research would say it’s better to take an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to put you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing a natural sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more refreshed. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep in the evening.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts suggest employing comparable habits you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a comfortable bed and minimal light as possible. Some advise that you should just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – to avoid sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is something really tricky to force,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on in the first place. I can usually nap in broad daylight and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to look for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and when you have few options – such as, if attempting to fit in some shut-eye during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
