The Key for an Ideal Kip: Timing, Location and Duration?
Hear enough performance gurus, making it tempting to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after restless night, but a path to improved recall, improved mood and maybe quicker running times. Professional footballers are all at it – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that allows regular snoozing, are there *really* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, not worse?
Exploring The Drive to Snooze
“There are three primary motivations for taking a nap among most adults,” notes an expert sleep science specialist. “One is what we call compensatory napping, which is the action you take following insufficient sleep overnight. Another is prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, such as during on night shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to sleep in the daytime, and it's pleasant to nap.”
The initial step to do, then, is consider why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is being disrupted due to causes you cannot change – for instance, if you’re a new parent, or recovering after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” explains a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping because your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that can be a signal your need for sleep is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Duration
This implies that naps shouldn’t be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your overnight rest, and best should not occur after about 3pm (based on when you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. Among the most-cited studies about napping, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in alertness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep quickly,” notes a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations concerning the optimal amount of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that spaced-out feeling upon waking. “Studies would say it is preferable to have a longer nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – whereas if you extend it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and are likely to get up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it can influence how you sleep in the evening.”
Finding the Perfect Snooze Setting
As for precise methods, advice differs. Some experts recommend employing similar routines you use to promote a good night’s sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that it's fine to just doze on a couch in the existing light is present – to prevent sleep inertia and to preserve your bed as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to force,” explains a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some drive there to initiate sleep to begin with. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, however, what assists most folks is to wait for an instance when they are naturally slightly tired and just gently ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – for example, if attempting to squeeze in 40 winks on a train or at the office – it is perfectly fine with bringing a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
