The Formula to an Ideal Kip: When, Where & Duration?
Hear a few self-improvement gurus, and it’s easy to convince yourself that dozing is a powerful tool: not just a quick fix after restless night, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional soccer players swear by it – and so are musicians, mixed martial artists & high-profile executives. But if you don't have a dedicated nap-room or a career that encourages frequent naps, can there *honestly* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will arise feeling better, not worse?
Understanding Your Nap Motivation
“We can identify three primary motivations for taking a nap for many people,” says a professor of sleep science specialist. “One is termed compensatory napping, essentially what happens following insufficient sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, which involves preparing for sleep loss coming up, such as when working graveyard shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which simply comes down to desire: you get a moment to nap during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
The initial step to do, therefore, is to think about your reason for napping. “Naps can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is being disrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, if you’re caring for an infant, or you’re recovering from illness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap since your sleep at night feels fragile or broken, that is frequently a signal your need for sleep is not at the level required. In such situations, napping can become part of the problem, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the priority must always be a solid and consistent night’s sleep.”
The Optimal Snooze Time
This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to disrupt your nighttime sleep, and ideally should not occur after about 3pm (contingent on when you sleep in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of the most-cited studies on the subject, space agency scientists discovered that crew members had up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% boost in task performance post a 26-minute snooze (technically, this counted a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the perfect length for sleeping, yet that often cause people to feel more anxious than anything – and the least helpful action one can do when trying to nod off is worry about it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies indicates it is preferable to have an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” says the professor. “45 minutes is sufficient to put you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish upon awakening – while if you nap for slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably get up feeling more refreshed. However, if you nap for an hour and a half, it will affect the quality of your sleep in the evening.”
Creating an Ideal Sleep Space
When it comes to specific techniques, recommendations vary. Certain specialists recommend employing similar routines you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and maximum darkness as possible. Others suggest that you should simply nap on a couch in the existing light is available – to avoid post-nap grogginess and to preserve your bedroom as the environment your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is notoriously difficult to force,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is tougher to get comfortable and essentially command yourself to fall asleep. There’s got to be some drive available to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze in broad daylight and naturally wake up alarm-free, however, what assists a lot of people is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”
Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – for instance, if you’re trying to fit in 40 winks during a commute or at the office – there’s nothing wrong to use a few tools. “When I’m working with elite athletes, I advise that they not rely on napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will
