The Formula for an Ideal Kip: When, Where & Duration?
Listen to enough self-improvement podcasters, and it’s simple to think that napping is a superpower: rather than a sticking plaster following restless night, but a route to a better memory, improved mood and perhaps improved athletic performance. Professional footballers do it regularly – along with professional piano players, fighters and high-profile executives. But if you lack a dedicated nap-room or employment that encourages frequent naps, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep to merit the kerfuffle? Is there a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you will arise feeling improved, not worse?
Understanding The Drive to Snooze
“Experts note three primary motivations for taking a nap for many people,” says a professor of sleep science researcher. “The first is what we call recovery napping, that is the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for a sleep deficit coming up, for instance when working graveyard shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically boils down to the wish: there is a chance to nap in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The first thing to do, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Daytime sleep can be really helpful when nighttime sleep is disturbed because of factors you cannot change – such as, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you’re napping as your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that’s often a sign your sleep drive is not at the level it needs to be. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the issue, not the solution. Employ naps for brief periods to address immediate needs – the focus must always be a solid and consistent overnight rest.”
The Optimal Nap Duration
Therefore that naps ought not to be long enough to interfere with your overnight rest, and preferably are not recommended post-3 p.m. (based on when you retire at night). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. From the most-cited studies about napping, researchers at Nasa found that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this included a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – most people fall asleep quickly,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations concerning the perfect length of minutes, yet that often make people feel more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing you can possibly do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
If you’re going to nap for a longer period, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that induces sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation upon waking. “Research indicates it's more effective to have an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel groggy upon awakening – however, if you take it a bit longer to a full sleep cycle, you’re likely to finish a natural sleep cycle and should get up feeling more alert. But if you’re sleeping for an hour and a half, it will affect how you sleep later that night.”
Establishing the Right Sleep Space
Regarding precise methods, advice differs. Certain specialists suggest employing the same protocol one would use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Some advise that you should merely snooze on a couch in whatever light is present – to avoid that groggy feeling and to “protect” your bed as the space you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains an expert. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is tougher to recline and basically command yourself to nod off. There’s got to be some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and naturally wake up alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to look for an instance where they feel naturally slightly tired and calmly relax into it.”
Experimentation is key, and when options are scarce – for instance, if you’re trying to grab 40 winks while traveling or in a work pod – it is perfectly fine to use sleep aids. “Coaching footballers, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
