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Listen to plenty of performance gurus, and you'll be simple to believe that a nap is a secret weapon: not just a quick fix after restless night, but a path to improved recall, better spirits and possibly quicker running times. Professional athletes do it regularly – and so are concert pianists, fighters and media moguls. But if you don't have a room for napping or employment that allows daytime sleep, is it *truly* enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a reliable way to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to really guarantee you will get up feeling better, not worse?

Identifying The Drive to Snooze

“We can identify three main reasons for napping in the adult population,” explains a leading sleep science researcher. “One is known as make-up sleep, which is the action you take following insufficient sleep the night before. Another is preparatory napping, when you are pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for example if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “pleasure-based sleep”, which simply comes down to wanting: you get an opportunity to nap in the afternoon, and it's pleasant to indulge.”

The primary task to consider, so, is to examine your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep gets interrupted because of factors beyond your control – such as, when you are a new parent, or recovering from illness or strenuous activity,” says a sleep specialist. “But if you’re napping as your night sleep feels fragile or poor, that is frequently a sign your need for sleep is not at the level it should be. Under those circumstances, napping can become part of the issue, instead of the fix. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for temporary issues – the focus must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”

The Optimal Nap Duration

This implies that naps must not be long enough to disrupt your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (contingent on when you sleep overnight). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in vigilance plus a 34% rise in task performance following a nap of 26 minutes (in detail, this included a six-minute sleep onset time). “I’d suggest using an alarm for half an hour or less – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” notes a sleep expert. “You'll find much advice around regarding the perfect length of minutes, yet that often make people feel more stressed above all – and the worst thing you can possibly do while aiming to get to sleep is to stress over it.”

If you plan to take an extended nap, steer clear of the 45-60 minute window that encourages sleep inertia, that foggy state upon waking. “Research suggests it is preferable to opt for an extended nap lasting 60-90 minutes than a medium-length one,” notes the professor. “Three-quarters of an hour is long enough to put you into deep sleep making it more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you will probably to be on the end a natural sleep cycle and should awaken feeling more refreshed. But if you nap for 90 minutes, it will affect how you sleep that night.”

Creating the Perfect Snooze Setting

When it comes to precise methods, advice differs. Some experts suggest employing comparable habits you’d use to foster restful sleep: a quiet room, a supportive surface and maximum darkness as is feasible. Some advise that you should merely snooze on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to prevent sleep inertia and to maintain your sleeping quarters as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is something really tricky to force,” explains a specialist. “If you don’t have any drowsiness, it is tougher to lie down and basically instruct yourself to nod off. There must be some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep to begin with. I can usually nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally without a timer, but what helps many individuals is to look for a moment where they feel naturally somewhat sleepy and then simply allow sleep to come.”

It’s worth experimenting, and when options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to grab some shut-eye on a train or at the office – there’s nothing wrong with bringing a few tools. “In my work with footballers, I recommend that they not rely on their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will