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Tune into plenty of productivity gurus, and it’s simple to believe that napping is a powerful tool: not just a band-aid after restless night, but a shortcut towards enhanced cognition, a brighter outlook and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite soccer players are all at it – along with concert pianists, mixed martial artists and high-profile executives. But if you don't have a room for napping or a career that encourages frequent naps, is it *truly* sufficient advantages to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the effort? Can you find a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? And can you really guarantee you will arise feeling better, not worse?

Understanding The Drive to Snooze

“There are three key drivers for napping in the adult population,” says a leading circadian rhythm researcher. “The first is what we call make-up sleep, that is the action you take following poor sleep the previous night. Another is pre-emptive sleep, which involves pre-empting sleep loss in the future, for instance when working on night shifts. The third reason is “hedonic napping”, which essentially comes down to the wish: you get a chance to nap during the day, and it's enjoyable to do it.”

The first thing to undertake, therefore, is to think about your nap motivation. “Napping can be genuinely useful when nighttime sleep is being disrupted due to causes beyond your control – for example, for a parent of a newborn, or if you are healing from sickness or heavy physical exertion,” states a sleep specialist. “But if you take a nap as your nighttime sleep seems unreliable or poor, that’s often a sign your body's sleep pressure is not where it should be. In those cases, naps can become a contributing factor, not the solution. Utilize daytime sleep for brief periods for short-term problems – the focus ought to remain a robust and regular night’s sleep.”

The Ideal Nap Duration

Therefore that naps shouldn’t be long enough to affect your sleep at night, and preferably shouldn’t take place in the late afternoon (depending on when you go to bed in the evening). What duration is wise? Recommendations vary. In one of a prominent study regarding daytime sleep, researchers at Nasa discovered that astronauts showed up to a 54% increase in vigilance and a 34% increase in cognitive performance post a 26-minute snooze (in detail, this counted a six-minute nodding-off period). “I’d suggest using an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes – many individuals are asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep expert. “There’s a lot of recommendations regarding the ideal number of minutes, yet that often cause people to feel more stressed than anything – and the worst thing you can do while aiming to get to sleep is to be anxious.”

Should you decide to sleep for longer, bypass the 45 to 60 minute range that promotes that sluggish feeling, that foggy state when you wake. “Studies indicates it's more effective to take a longer nap of one to one and a half hours compared to a medium-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “Three-quarters of an hour is sufficient to plunge you into slow-wave sleep making it more likely to feel disoriented when you get up – while if you take it a little longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and will probably get up feeling more refreshed. Though if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it can influence the quality of your sleep later that night.”

Finding an Ideal Snooze Setting

Regarding precise methods, suggestions are diverse. Some experts suggest adopting similar routines one would use to encourage restful sleep: a peaceful area, a supportive surface and minimal light as possible. Others suggest that it's fine to simply nap on a couch with ambient lighting is available – to prevent that groggy feeling and to maintain your bedroom as the space your mind associates with *real* sleep. “Falling asleep is quite challenging to force,” says a sleep coach. “Without any sleepiness, it is tougher to lie down and essentially instruct yourself to go to sleep. There must be some sleep pressure there to start the process initially. I can usually nap in full light and awaken on my own alarm-free, though, what aids many individuals is to anticipate a time when they are naturally feeling a bit drowsy and just gently ease into sleep.”

Trying different approaches is valuable, and when options are scarce – such as, if you’re trying to squeeze in a quick nap during a commute or at the office – it is perfectly fine to use some accessories. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I suggest that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will