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Tune into enough performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a superpower: rather than a band-aid after poor sleep, but a shortcut towards improved recall, a brighter outlook and perhaps quicker running times. Professional footballers swear by it – and so are professional piano players, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. However, if you lack a special sleep space or a career that permits regular snoozing, can there *honestly* worthwhile perks to a quick nap for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to nod off promptly? Furthermore, can you truly ensure you will get up feeling better, not worse?

Exploring The Reasons for Napping

“Experts note three key drivers for napping among most adults,” notes a professor of circadian rhythm researcher. “Firstly, there's termed make-up sleep, which is what happens when you’ve had poor sleep overnight. Another is pre-emptive sleep, when you are anticipating sleep loss ahead, for instance if you’re working overnight shifts. Finally, there's “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to desire: you get an opportunity to doze during the day, and it's pleasant to nap.”

The primary task to undertake, therefore, is consider why you want to nap. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted for reasons beyond your control – for example, if you’re caring for an infant, or if you are healing after being ill or strenuous activity,” says a sleep physiologist. “However, if you take a nap as your night sleep feels fragile or unreliable, that can be a sign your sleep drive is not as strong as it needs to be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Employ naps for brief periods for temporary issues – the main goal ought to remain a strong and predictable sleep at night.”

The Optimal Nap Duration

This means that napping ought not to be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and best shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on the time you go to bed 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 a boost of up to 54% in alertness plus a 34% rise in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (to be precise, this involved a six-minute long falling asleep phase). “I recommend setting an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority doze off within 10 minutes,” explains a specialist. “There’s a lot of advice around concerning the optimal amount for sleeping, however, that can cause people to feel more stressed above all – and the least helpful action you can possibly do when trying to fall asleep is worry about it.”

If you’re going to nap for a longer period, avoid the 45-60 minute window that promotes sleep inertia, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “The science would say it's more effective to take a lengthier snooze lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” says the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into slow-wave sleep and it is more probable to feel disoriented when you wake up – whereas if you extend it slightly longer to 60 or 90 minutes, you’re likely to be completing a natural sleep cycle and will probably awaken feeling more refreshed. However, if you’re sleeping for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep that night.”

Finding the Perfect Sleep Space

As for specific techniques, advice differs. A few professionals propose adopting the same protocol you use to encourage a good night’s sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and minimal light as you can manage. Others suggest that you should simply nap in a chair in whatever light is available – both to discourage that groggy feeling and to preserve your bed as the place you associate with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” says a sleep coach. “Without the urge to sleep, it is more challenging to lie down and basically command yourself to nod off. You need some sleep pressure there to start the process to begin with. Personally, I can often snooze during the day and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids most folks is to wait for an instance where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and calmly ease into sleep.”

Trying different approaches is valuable, and should you have few options – for instance, if attempting to grab 40 winks while traveling or in a work pod – it's acceptable to use sleep aids. “When I’m working with footballers, I recommend that they don’t get used to napping in bed, because they’re going to have|they will