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Hear enough performance podcasters, making it simple to think that dozing is a powerful tool: more than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a route to improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Elite athletes do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, UFC champions and high-profile executives. Yet, when you lack a room for napping or a career that encourages frequent naps, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Furthermore, can you honestly promise you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?

Exploring Your Nap Motivation

“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” notes a leading sleep science researcher. “The first is what we call recovery napping, which is what you do following a lack of sleep the night before. The second is preparatory napping, where you are anticipating sleep loss in the future, such as during overnight shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to wanting: you have a moment to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to nap.”

The primary task to consider, therefore, is to examine why you want to nap. “Napping can be really helpful when night sleeping gets interrupted due to causes you cannot change – for example, when you are a parent of a newborn, or recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “But if you nap since your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that is frequently a signal your sleep drive is not at the level it needs to be. In such situations, daytime sleep can turn into part of the problem, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods to address immediate needs – the priority must always be a strong and predictable overnight rest.”

The Ideal Nap Length

This means that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to affect your nighttime sleep, and preferably are not recommended in the late afternoon (based on the time you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, space agency scientists discovered that crew members showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in task performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20-30 minutes – most people fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of guidance out there about the optimal amount of minutes, but that tends to make people feel more anxious above all – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to get to sleep is to be anxious.”

If you’re going to sleep for longer, avoid the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages sleep grogginess, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “Studies suggests it is preferable to take an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” explains the professor. “Forty-five minutes is long enough to send you into a deep sleep stage and it is more probable to feel groggy when you get up – while if you extend it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, it's likely you'll to finish a full cycle and are likely to wake up feeling more alert. Though if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect your sleep that night.”

Establishing the Right Nap Environment

Regarding exact methodologies, recommendations vary. Some experts propose employing similar routines one would use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a cozy bed and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that you should just doze on the sofa in the existing light is present – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the space you associate with nighttime rest. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” says an expert. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically command yourself to fall asleep. There must be a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to snooze in full light and naturally wake up alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to look for an instance when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”

Trying different approaches is valuable, and should your choices are limited – such as, if you’re trying to grab 40 winks while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “Coaching professional sportspeople, I recommend that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will