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Hear a few productivity gurus, and you'll be easy to believe that a nap is a superpower: more than a sticking plaster after restless night, but a path to a better memory, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite footballers do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a career that permits daytime sleep, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a short sleep to merit the effort? Does there exist a dependable method to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you will get up feeling refreshed, not worse?

Identifying The Nap Motivation

“We can identify three main reasons for daytime sleep in the adult population,” notes a professor of sleep science researcher. “Firstly, there's what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do following insufficient sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, when you are anticipating insufficient sleep coming up, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to the wish: you get an opportunity to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to nap.”

The initial step to consider, therefore, is to think about why you want to nap. “Daytime sleep can be genuinely useful when overnight rest gets interrupted due to causes beyond your control – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or strenuous activity,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping since your nighttime sleep feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a signal your body's sleep pressure is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus should still be a robust and regular sleep at night.”

The Optimal Nap Duration

This means that naps must not be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your sleep at night, and ideally are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on when you sleep in the evening). How long is sensible? Advice differs. Among the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts noted that astronauts had a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – the majority are asleep in under ten minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, however, that can make people feel more anxious above all – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”

If you plan to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you awaken. “Research indicates it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” explains the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is enough time to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to be completing of a sleep cycle and are likely to get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”

Establishing the Perfect Snooze Setting

Regarding specific techniques, advice differs. Certain specialists recommend employing the same protocol you’d use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should merely snooze on the sofa with ambient lighting happens to be around – to prevent sleep inertia and to “protect” your bed as the place your brain links with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to command,” notes a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it becomes harder to lie down and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be a natural inclination available to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and naturally wake up without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to anticipate an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”

Experimentation is key, and if options are scarce – for instance, when aiming to grab some shut-eye while traveling or in a work pod – there’s nothing wrong to employ a few tools. “When I’m working with footballers, I advise that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, as they’re going to have|they will