The Formula to an Ideal Kip: When, Where & Duration?
Listen to a few performance podcasters, making it easy to think that napping is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix following restless night, but a shortcut towards a better memory, improved mood and possibly quicker running times. Professional athletes swear by it – and so are musicians, UFC champions & high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a special sleep space or a job that permits frequent naps, are there *really* enough benefits to a quick nap to justify the kerfuffle? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Plus, is it possible to honestly promise you will get up feeling better, not worse?
Understanding Your Drive to Snooze
“We can identify three key drivers for daytime sleep among most adults,” explains a leading circadian rhythm specialist. “One is what we call recovery napping, essentially what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep overnight. Secondly, there's prophylactic napping, when you are preparing for a sleep deficit in the future, for instance when working on night shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which basically comes down to the wish: there is a moment to doze in the afternoon, and it feels nice to indulge.”
The initial step to undertake, then, is to examine your nap motivation. “Napping can be truly beneficial when overnight rest is disturbed due to causes beyond your control – for example, when you are a new parent, or if you are healing after being ill or heavy physical exertion,” says a sleep physiologist. “But if you’re napping because your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that can be an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as it should be. In those cases, naps can become part of the issue, rather than the answer. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus should still be a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”
The Perfect Nap Length
Therefore that napping shouldn’t be long enough to affect your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on what time you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Recommendations vary. In one of the most referenced research on the subject, space agency scientists discovered that space travelers showed improvements of over 50% in attentiveness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (in detail, this counted a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I recommend setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority fall asleep quickly,” says a sleep coach. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the ideal number of time, yet that often lead individuals to become more worried above all – and the worst thing you can do when trying to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
If you plan to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that encourages that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you awaken. “The science would say it’s better to have a longer nap of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” says the expert. “Three-quarters of an hour is enough time to send you into deep sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish when you get up – however, if you take it a bit longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you will probably to be completing a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you're dozing for a long period, it can influence the quality of your sleep later that night.”
Creating an Ideal Nap Environment
Regarding exact methodologies, advice differs. A few professionals recommend employing comparable habits one would use to promote restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap on a couch in whatever light is available – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to “protect” your bedroom as the place your mind associates with nighttime rest. “Sleep is something really tricky to command,” says an expert. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is tougher to recline and practically instruct yourself to fall asleep. You need a natural inclination present to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and naturally wake up without an alarm, but what helps many individuals is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally feeling a bit drowsy and calmly ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and should you have few options – such as, if attempting to grab 40 winks during a commute or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable to employ a few tools. “Coaching footballers, I advise that they don’t get used to sleeping in their bed, because they’re going to have|they will
