Many athletes and professional musicians swear by getting some shut-eye during the day, but what\u2019s the best way to ensure you don\u2019t end up feeling groggy?<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sign up here to get the whole series straight to your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to enough productivity podcasters, and it\u2019s easy to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night\u2019s sleep, but a shortcut to a better memory, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers are all at it \u2013 and so are professional piano players, UFC champions<\/a> and Arianna Huffington<\/a>. But if you haven\u2019t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there really<\/em> enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you\u2019ll wake up feeling better, not worse?<\/p>\n \u201cThere are three main reasons for napping among most adults,\u201d says Clare Anderson, the University of Birmingham\u2019s professor of sleep and circadian science. \u201cThe first is what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do when you\u2019ve had insufficient sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance if you\u2019re working on night shifts. The third is called \u201cappetitive drive\u201d, which basically comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n