The Formula to an Ideal Kip: When, Where & for How Long?
Tune into a few performance podcasters, and you'll be simple to believe that a nap is a powerful tool: more than a sticking plaster after poor sleep, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and maybe a faster 5k run time. Elite footballers do it regularly – and so are musicians, mixed martial artists and media moguls. However, if you lack a room for napping or employment that encourages regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to justify the effort? Does there exist a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling better, rather than worse?
Understanding The Reasons for Napping
“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep in the adult population,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “The first is known as compensatory napping, that is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. Secondly, there's pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, such as when working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to wanting: you have a moment to nap in the daytime, and it feels nice to nap.”
The initial step to consider, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is disturbed for reasons you cannot change – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping because your nighttime sleep is unstable or unreliable, that’s often an indicator your body's sleep pressure is not at the level required. In those cases, napping can become part of the problem, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus ought to remain a strong and predictable overnight rest.”
The Ideal Nap Duration
This means that napping must not be too extended to interfere with your overnight rest, and ideally shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you go to bed overnight). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. Among the most-cited studies on the subject, space agency scientists found that crew members had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% increase in performance after a 26-minute nap (technically, this counted an initial six-minute falling asleep phase). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – most people doze off within 10 minutes,” notes a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations about the optimal amount of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the most counterproductive thing you can do when trying to get to sleep is worry about it.”
Should you decide to take an extended nap, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that foggy state when you wake. “Research would say it is preferable to opt for a longer nap of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to send you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you extend it slightly longer to a full sleep cycle, it's likely you'll to finish of a sleep cycle and are likely to awaken feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep that night.”
Creating the Right Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Certain specialists propose employing comparable habits one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that you should simply nap in a chair in the existing light is available – to prevent post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bedroom as the place your brain links with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to command,” notes a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically tell yourself to nod off. There must be some drive present to start the process initially. Personally, I can often take a nap in full light and awaken on my own without an alarm, but what helps most folks is to wait for a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly relax into it.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – for example, if attempting to fit in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – it's acceptable with bringing sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
