The Secret to a Flawless Snooze: When, Where and for How Long?

Listen to a few performance gurus, making it easy to think that dozing is a superpower: rather than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a shortcut to enhanced cognition, better spirits and possibly a faster 5k run time. Professional athletes do it regularly – along with musicians, UFC champions & media moguls. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that permits daytime sleep, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the effort? Can you find a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?

Identifying Your Nap Motivation

“There are three key drivers for taking a nap in the adult population,” notes a professor of sleep science researcher. “One is known as compensatory napping, that is the action you take after experiencing poor sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, when you are anticipating insufficient sleep ahead, for example during on night shifts. Finally, there's “hedonic napping”, which basically comes down to wanting: you have a chance to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to indulge.”

The initial step to consider, then, is consider your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you’re napping as your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that can be an indicator your need for sleep is not where it needs to be. In such situations, naps can become part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the priority must always be a robust and regular sleep at night.”

The Perfect Nap Duration

Therefore that daytime sleep shouldn’t be long enough to affect your overnight rest, and preferably should not occur in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you retire in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From a prominent study about napping, space agency scientists noted that space travelers had up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There is plenty of advice around concerning the optimal amount of time, however, that can cause people to feel more worried than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to nod off is to be anxious.”

If you plan to nap for a longer period, steer clear of the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Research indicates it’s better to opt for an extended nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” explains the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is long enough to send you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – while if you extend it a little longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence the quality of your sleep in the evening.”

Establishing an Ideal Sleep Space

As for precise methods, advice differs. A few professionals propose employing similar routines you’d use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and as much darkness as you can manage. Some advise that you should simply nap on the sofa in whatever light is available – both to discourage sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the space your brain links with nighttime rest. “Napping is something really tricky to force,” notes an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it becomes harder to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to initiate sleep initially. I can usually take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally alarm-free, but what helps many individuals is to wait for an instance that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”

It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – such as, when aiming to fit in some shut-eye on a train or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will