The Key for an Ideal Kip: When, Location and for How Long?
Tune into plenty of productivity experts, and it’s tempting to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix following poor sleep, but a route towards enhanced cognition, better spirits and possibly quicker running times. Premier League footballers do it regularly – along with musicians, fighters & media moguls. But if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that allows frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Identifying Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says a professor of circadian rhythm specialist. “The first is termed compensatory napping, that is the action you take when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, which involves pre-empting sleep loss coming up, for instance during on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to the wish: there is an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – such as, for a new parent, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “Yet when you take a nap because your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution to address immediate needs – the focus ought to remain a robust and regular sleep at night.”
The Perfect Snooze Time
This implies that napping must not be long enough to interfere with your sleep at night, and preferably are not recommended after about 3pm (depending on what time you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that space travelers showed a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for half an hour or less – most people doze off quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the ideal number of time, yet that often make people feel more stressed than anything – and the least helpful action you can do when attempting to fall asleep is worry about it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science indicates it's more effective to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a natural sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. However, if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to precise methods, advice differs. A few professionals propose employing the same protocol you use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as possible. Some advise that one could just doze on the sofa with ambient lighting is present – both to discourage sleep inertia and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with proper sleep. “Sleep is quite challenging to command,” explains a specialist. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically command yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive there to start the process initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, however, what assists most folks is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – for example, when aiming to squeeze in a quick nap while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “In my work with elite athletes, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, since they’re going to have|they will
