The Key for an Ideal Snooze: When, Location & for How Long?

Listen to plenty of self-improvement podcasters, making it tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to improved recall, improved mood and perhaps quicker running times. Elite athletes are all at it – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists & business leaders. But if you don't have a special sleep space or employment that permits regular snoozing, is it *truly* worthwhile perks to a short sleep for it to be worth the hassle? Is there a dependable method to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?

Understanding Your Nap Motivation

“Experts note three key drivers for daytime sleep for many people,” explains an expert circadian rhythm professor. “One is termed recovery napping, that is the action you take following a lack of sleep the previous night. The second is pre-emptive sleep, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example when working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to the wish: you get a moment to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”

The initial step to undertake, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping gets interrupted for reasons outside your control – for example, when you are caring for an infant, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep specialist. “Yet when you nap since your nighttime sleep is unstable or poor, that’s often an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the priority should still be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”

The Perfect Nap Length

This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to affect your sleep at night, and ideally are not recommended in the late afternoon (based on when you go to bed overnight). How long is sensible? Guidelines are mixed. Among a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa noted that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I’d suggest setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the ideal number for sleeping, but that tends to lead individuals to become more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing one can do when trying to nod off is to stress over it.”

If you plan to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research would say it’s better to have a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel groggy when you get up – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more alert. But if you nap for an hour and a half, it may impact your sleep later that night.”

Creating the Right Nap Environment

As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest using the same protocol you’d use to encourage quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Alternatively, experts propose that you should merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting is available – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bedroom as the environment your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to recline and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. There must be some drive there to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to take a nap during the day and wake up naturally without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”

Experimentation is key, and if you have few options – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in a quick nap on a train or at the office – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will