Naps, A Great Tool
In a world that is sleep deprived and many regularly don’t get enough sleep, people need to find a way to ensure that they are getting the great benefits of sleep. In the last article, I covered the amazing benefits of sleep and how sleep allows you to get the most benefits out of your hard work in training. But what if you cannot get that necessary 8 hours? Are you just out of luck or is there something you can do? Don’t worry, there is and it was one of the best parts of school when you were a kid, nap time. Naps are a great way to refresh the body.
While napping is not a substitute for a good night’s sleep, it does have a place and some great benefits. When unable to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep, napping can help. Naps have been shown to improve measures of vigilance, reasoning, and alertness (Milner & Cote, 2019). Individuals performed better in tests of cognitive measures in these three areas when it came to their performance at their jobs. A nap allowed these individuals to wake up and be more alert and cognizant of things around them and how well they performed their necessary tasks. Whether you are an athlete looking to be in top shape for a game or you’re working a long shift in a job that requires you to be fully focused, a nap can help you perform your best.
Naps are a great tool for anyone who is feeling a bit out of it or needing to perform at a high level and are feeling tired or were not able to get enough sleep leading up to that important event or day. Naps are proven to increase alertness as well as being an effective strategy to overcome cognitive and physical deteriorations due to high stress environments (Daaloul, et al., 2019). They allow the body a moment to reset and recover for the following event. An important note is that naps are not a substitute for a good night’s sleep, but they can help in instances where fatigue is prevalent and alertness and reasoning start to decline.
A good nap involves certain components that ensure the individual napping wakes up alert and ready for what ensures. The timing of a nap is one of the most important factors to consider. A nap should be taken more in the middle of the person’s day and not to close to bed time. This ensures that it does not interfere with the subsequent night’s sleep. If this occurs, there can be a negative impact on the following day and thus potential deteriorations in cognitive measures that next day. A nap should be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes or over 90 minutes in length. While this either seems short or really long, it’s all about working within the body’s normal sleep cycles. Anything longer than 30 minutes and shorter than 90 minutes, the body goes into deep sleep and waking up during this deep sleep results in waking up groggy and still tired. When taking a nap, it is important to lay down, close the eyes, and take deep breaths. It is more about rest, than it is sleeping. If the individual falls asleep great, but if not that’s ok too, the emphasis is on rest. When waking from a quality nap, the individual should feel refreshed and alert within 15 minutes. If they are still tired and groggy, looking beyond just being tired that day and at are they regularly getting enough sleep at night is critical. Naps a tool to use as needed. Regular quality sleep at night should not be overlooked. So, ensuring this is still happening is essential.
Napping is an effective strategy to ensure that you are more alert and ready on those days you just feel exhausted or fatigued. Naps can help to improve alertness and cognitive measures in people from all walks of life. They should not be used instead of a quality sleep routine. Naps on those tough days combined with quality sleep patterns are a great tool to help. They allow for people to be at their best when the need to be. Use naps as a tool to help perform at your highest level even on those days you feel exhausted.
-Tyler Grisdale, MS, CSCS, RSCC, FRC, TPI
References
Daaloul H, Souissi N, Davenne D. Effects of Napping on Alertness, Cognitive, and Physical Outcomes of Karate Athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Feb;51(2):338-345. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001786. PMID: 30239491.
MILNER, C.E. and COTE, K.A. (2009), Benefits of napping in healthy adults: impact of nap length, time of day, age, and experience with napping. Journal of Sleep Research, 18: 272-281. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00718.x