The Key for a Flawless Kip: When, Where & Duration?
Listen to a few self-improvement podcasters, and it’s tempting to think that napping is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid after restless night, but a route towards improved recall, improved mood and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes do it regularly – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions & business leaders. Yet, when you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that allows regular snoozing, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a quick nap to justify the hassle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“There are three key drivers for taking a nap for many people,” notes a leading sleep and circadian science professor. “Firstly, there's what we call recovery napping, essentially what happens after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting sleep loss ahead, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply is about desire: there is a moment to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons beyond your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing from illness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap since your night sleep is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your need for sleep is not as strong as required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods to address immediate needs – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
This implies that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to affect your sleep at night, and preferably are not recommended after about 3pm (depending on the time you go to bed overnight). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research on the subject, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers had up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute nodding-off period). “I recommend setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there concerning the optimal amount of time, yet that often cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the worst thing you can do when attempting to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state upon waking. “The science indicates it is preferable to opt for a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented upon awakening – whereas if you take it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to be completing a full cycle and should get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for a long period, it will affect your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Right Nap Environment
As for specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals suggest adopting the same protocol one would use to promote a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a cozy bed and maximum darkness as possible. Some advise that one could just doze in a chair in the existing light happens to be around – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your sleeping quarters as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to will,” notes a specialist. “Without any drowsiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and essentially tell yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to bring the sleep on initially. For me, it's possible to nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids many individuals is to look for an instance that they’re naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and when your choices are limited – for example, when aiming to fit in a quick nap during a commute or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine with bringing a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, since they’re going to have|they will
