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Hear enough performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that a nap is a secret weapon: more than a quick fix following a bad night’s sleep, but a path to enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly quicker running times. Professional athletes do it regularly – along with professional piano players, UFC champions and business leaders. Yet, when you don't have a special sleep space or a job that permits daytime sleep, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a burst of shut-eye to justify the hassle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling better, rather than worse?

Exploring Your Nap Motivation

“We can identify three key drivers for taking a nap among most adults,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science researcher. “Firstly, there's termed compensatory napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the previous night. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are anticipating sleep loss in the future, for example if you’re working graveyard shifts. The third reason is “appetitive drive”, which basically is about wanting: you get a chance to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to nap.”

The initial step to undertake, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors you cannot change – such as, when you are a parent of a newborn, or recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” says a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping because your night sleep seems unreliable or unreliable, that can be a signal your need for sleep is not where required. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for temporary issues – the main goal should still be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”

The Perfect Nap Duration

Therefore that daytime sleep ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place post-3 p.m. (depending on when you retire overnight). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, experts noted that astronauts had improvements of over 50% in attentiveness and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted an initial six-minute sleep onset time). “I recommend setting a timer for half an hour or less – many individuals are asleep in under ten minutes,” says a sleep expert. “You'll find much recommendations concerning the ideal number of minutes, yet that often make people feel more anxious than anything – and the worst thing one can do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”

Should you decide to take an extended nap, bypass the 45-60 minute window that induces that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies would say it is preferable to take a lengthier snooze of 60 to 90 minutes rather than a mid-length nap,” says the sleep scientist. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – whereas if you extend it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and should wake up feeling more alert. Though if you're dozing for a long period, it will affect your sleep later that night.”

Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting

As for exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Some experts recommend adopting similar routines one would use to encourage restful sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on a couch with ambient lighting is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the environment your brain links with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to force,” says a specialist. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to recline and basically instruct yourself to nod off. There must be some drive there to initiate sleep initially. I can usually nap during the day and awaken on my own without an alarm, however, what assists many individuals is to wait for a time where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”

Experimentation is key, and should options are scarce – such as, when aiming to fit in 40 winks while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to use some accessories. “Coaching elite athletes, I recommend that they avoid becoming accustomed to napping in bed, as they’re going to have|they will