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Hear a few self-improvement gurus, making it easy to believe that a nap is a superpower: rather than a quick fix after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to a better memory, better spirits and perhaps a faster 5k run time. Premier League athletes are all at it – as do musicians, fighters & media moguls. However, if you don't have a room for napping or employment that encourages regular snoozing, are there *really* sufficient advantages to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling better, not worse?

Exploring The Drive to Snooze

“We can identify three main reasons for napping among most adults,” says a professor of sleep and circadian science specialist. “Firstly, there's termed make-up sleep, essentially what happens when you’ve had poor sleep the previous night. The second is preparatory napping, which involves anticipating insufficient sleep in the future, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially is about desire: you have a moment to doze during the day, and it's enjoyable to do it.”

The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to examine your nap motivation. “Naps can be truly beneficial when nighttime sleep gets interrupted due to causes outside your control – for instance, when you are a new parent, or you’re recovering from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap because your sleep at night is unstable or broken, that can be a sign your need for sleep is not at the level required. Under those circumstances, naps can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep as a short-term solution for temporary issues – the focus ought to remain a solid and consistent sleep at night.”

The Optimal Nap Duration

This means that naps ought not to be sufficiently lengthy to disrupt your overnight rest, and preferably shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on the time you sleep overnight). What duration is wise? Advice differs. From the most referenced research on the subject, experts discovered that crew members had a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this included a six-minute long sleep onset time). “I’d suggest setting an alarm for half an hour or less – the majority fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “You'll find much guidance out there regarding the ideal number of time, but that tends to cause people to feel more anxious than anything else – and the worst thing one can do while aiming to nod off is to stress over it.”

Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes that sluggish feeling, that spaced-out feeling when you wake. “The science would say it is preferable to opt for an extended nap of 60 to 90 minutes compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the professor. “Forty-five minutes is enough time to plunge you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel sluggish upon awakening – however, if you nap for a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be on the end of a sleep cycle and should wake up feeling more rejuvenated. Though if you're dozing for a long period, it may impact the quality of your sleep in the evening.”

Establishing an Ideal Snooze Setting

Regarding precise methods, recommendations vary. Certain specialists suggest using comparable habits you use to encourage restful sleep: a quiet room, a comfortable bed and as much darkness as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap in a chair in the existing light is present – both to discourage post-nap grogginess and to maintain your bedroom as the place your brain links with proper sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to command,” says a sleep coach. “If you don’t have any sleepiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and basically command yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure there to bring the sleep on in the first place. Personally, I can often take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate a moment when they are naturally slightly tired and calmly allow sleep to come.”

Experimentation is key, and when you have few options – for instance, when aiming to grab 40 winks while traveling or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing some accessories. “When I’m working with footballers, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, because they’re going to have|they will