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Hear plenty of self-improvement experts, making it simple to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: not just a band-aid after a bad night’s sleep, but a path towards enhanced cognition, improved mood and possibly improved athletic performance. Professional athletes do it regularly – as do concert pianists, UFC champions & business leaders. However, if you lack a special sleep space or employment that allows daytime sleep, are there *really* worthwhile perks to a quick nap to merit the hassle? Is there a dependable method to fall asleep fast? And can you truly ensure you will get up feeling improved, instead of groggy?

Understanding Your Drive to Snooze

“We can identify three key drivers for napping among most adults,” explains an expert circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's what we call recovery napping, essentially the action you take after experiencing insufficient sleep the night before. The second is pre-emptive sleep, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for instance during graveyard shifts. The third reason is “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply boils down to wanting: there is a chance to sleep during the day, and it's pleasant to indulge.”

The primary task to do, then, is to think about your nap motivation. “Daytime sleep can be truly beneficial when night sleeping is being disrupted for reasons you cannot change – for example, for a new parent, or if you are healing from illness or intense exercise,” states a sleep expert. “But if you take a nap since your night sleep seems unreliable or broken, that is frequently an indicator your need for sleep is not as strong as it should be. Under those circumstances, daytime sleep can turn into a contributing factor, rather than the answer. Use napping as a temporary measure for short-term problems – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable night’s sleep.”

The Ideal Nap Duration

This implies that daytime sleep shouldn’t be too extended to affect your nighttime sleep, and best should not occur in the late afternoon (depending on when you sleep at night). What's a reasonable length? Advice differs. In one of a prominent study about napping, researchers at Nasa found that space travelers experienced a boost of up to 54% in attentiveness and a 34% increase in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this involved an initial six-minute nodding-off period). “My advice is setting a timer for 20 to 30 minutes – the majority doze off in under ten minutes,” says a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around about the optimal amount for sleeping, yet that often lead individuals to become more stressed than anything else – and the least helpful action one can do when attempting to get to sleep is to stress over it.”

If you plan to sleep for longer, avoid the period between 45 and 60 minutes that encourages that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science would say it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours than a medium-length one,” says the expert. “45 minutes is long enough to put you into a deep sleep stage making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – whereas if you take it a bit longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should get up feeling more rejuvenated. But if you’re sleeping for a long period, it will affect your sleep in the evening.”

Creating the Right Nap Environment

When it comes to precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Some experts recommend employing the same protocol you use to foster quality nighttime sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Alternatively, experts propose that you should just doze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – both to discourage sleep inertia and to maintain your bed as the environment your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Napping is notoriously difficult to force,” says a specialist. “If you don’t have the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and practically tell yourself to go to sleep. You need a natural inclination there to bring the sleep on in the first place. For me, it's possible to nap in full light and awaken on my own without a timer, but what helps a lot of people is to look for a moment where they feel naturally slightly tired and then simply relax into it.”

Experimentation is key, and should your choices are limited – for instance, when aiming to squeeze in some shut-eye while traveling or at the office – it is perfectly fine to employ sleep aids. “In my work with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will