Keys To An Effective Nap
Micro-naps (also known as “power naps”) work better than free-range napping.On a drizzly Sunday afternoon, if you had one glass of red wine too many the night before, sacking out on the couch for a couple hours’ worth of shut-eye is just the thing — but to get the most out of your nap, you’ll want to keep it short.Sleeping longer than 20-30 minutes often leads to The Napover, a self-explanatory condition which leaves you disoriented, thereby defeating the initial purpose of the nap.If you can’t sleep for an unlimited time, set your alarm for the closest hour/half-hour mark.
Don’t take naps at sundown.Going to sleep when it’s light and waking up when it’s dark jams you up mentally big-time.It’s really tough to resist this in the winter, when you can feel it getting colder at that time of day, you’ll just snuggle up under this blanket next to this very fat cat…don’t do it.You’ll feel like you lost a week somewhere.
“…This is no good.I’ve been lying here for eight — shit, nine minutes, and I can’t doze off.I just keep thinking about how much work I’m supposed to be doing.”Don’t give up!This is actually how the nap works its writer’s-block-busting, mental-reset magic.You’re curled up on your bed like a wound-up spring, glaring at the hem of your pillow, obsessing over some carefully diplomatic email you need to write or an office layout you can’t crack.You want the desks at diagonals, but if you arrange them that way, you don’t know where the hell the filing cabinet goes, and if the shared printer…hmm.So you start shoving things around in your brain, and because you’re fucked and who cares, you invite a squadron of George Clooney clones into the office in your brain to drag bookcases around and re-hang your plant and listen to Brazilian pop music, and wouldn’t that be awesome if Clooney clones (“Cloons”?) turned your glorified cubicle into a Busby Berkeley musical?Cloons filing, Cloons daisy-chaining power strips together, Cloons PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP your alarm goes off, and you sit up, drink some water (it gets the system moving again), and go out to Staples to buy some power strips because, while you were worrying, you were also snoozing, and you got out of your brain’s way and let it find the answer.
Maybe you don’t like boys that way, in which case feel free to use a gaggle of Poves instead, or whoever floats your boat.And maybe your system just isn’t built for naps, but give it a try anyway — and if you don’t catch any winks, you’ve still given your head a break.It’s like interval training, but mental.
Prepare for intense dreams.I have my most vivid dreams during naps, not at night.Part of it is environmental — stuff going on around me, like street noise and sunlight, that gets incorporated into the dreams but that isn’t present at night — and part of it is probably a circadian issue, because a lot of people report having very lifelike dreams (which also seem to last a long time) while napping.If you’re into that sort of thing, keep a notepad nearby and record your dream(s) when you get up; it can unlock some stuff.
Napping, done right, can increase your productivity.We live in an overworked, sleep-deprived culture, and if you’re feeling logey after lunch, it’s not because you’re a lazy shit; it’s because you’re tired and you need a time-out.Set your Outlook alarm for 3:15, put your head down on your arms, and take it.
A. MEN.
Preach it, Sars.
Ah. Love it. What I don’t get, though, is how I can sleep for 7+ hours at night and wake up just fine in the morning, but if I conk out for twenty minutes during the day, it’s like I’ve spent the last two years in the desert while drinking sand margaritas.
word! i am a champion nappyhead! you give me a 25 minute window, and i’ll use 4 to fall asleep, precisely 20 to sleep, and one to get myself up without an alarm, bright eyed, clear headed, and ready for action. i’m a huge fan of the siesta and think it should be a workplace staple!
Damn straight. Especially the bit about winter-evening-napping-with-cats. Napover, for sure. I think we should institute siestas in this country. We’d all be a little less nuts, for sure.
Actually, I find that an hour nap just makes my day (usually on weekends), but on the whole, I very much wish I lived in a land where afternoon naps of any length were du jour. My best naps ever, usually include a snuggly cat and a book on a rainy and/or snowy day! Hey Sars, you are clearly an authority on naps- do you have any ideas on how to cure insomnia, other than getting a cat (which, sadly, I can do)?
You may just have saved my education.
This sounds awesome and I’ll give it a go.
I’ve tried everything – sleeping between 7-8 hours, sleeping until I wake up naturally, sleeping 12 hours a day out of frustration… I am always tired.
Naps. Is there a limit to the number of naps a day?
I would limit it to one nap a day, if you’re studying/working at home. The last thing you need when you’re studying is to be unable to get to sleep at night – it’s hard enough without just being physically wide awake.
Yay for naps! I have seriously considered making them part of my religion. Naps are what kept me sane and generally functional through my overextended undergraduate years and I plan to integrate them into my grad school schedule, too.
But I tend to do one hour naps if I have the time–just on of them; if I don’t, then I do as many 15-20 minutes ones as I can get away with, even if it cuts into study time. After all, it’s far more efficient to have an hour of lucid, productive study time than two hours of glazed-over, uncomprehending staring only at the same two pages.
Cij: Searching for Vines on the subject might bring up some wisdom on the subject of insomnia — cut out caffeine, exercise regularly, don’t stay in bed if you can’t sleep, don’t eat too soon before bedtime, blah blah. Nothing WebMD wouldn’t tell you also.
The best advice *I* can give: if you’re up, you’re up. Done; no point stressing. Find an old movie on TCM you’ve always meant to watch, knock off some New Yorkers, brush the pets, pay the bills, whatever, but lying there worrying about how badly you need to fall asleep Right Now because of all the shit you have to do tomorrow does exactly no good. Just get up and do the shit now. But the key, I think, is to go with the flow; if you’re relaxed and comfortable with a book, there’s good in that, so take what you can get and try to make it up on the couch next Sunday.
And cats are good for naps. Undisturbed *nighttime* sleep? Hee. Good one. I mean, it’s nice to have the company if you’re awake at 3 AM, but…they’re often why you’re awake in the first place. God forbid anyone in this house eat kibble in the dark without a human audience. Fuck’s sake.
I spent my entire university career trying to convince my friend (a keener type, who was on student council) that our school needed a designated Nap Room. (i.e. you were up til 5 am getting that paper done, grabbed a couple hours’ sleep before stumtbling down to campus to hand it in, and – lo and behold – you have three hours til your next class, it’s a 45-minute commute, and in all likelihood once you get back to your house, you’re sleeping the rest of the day. But if there were a NAP ROOM, where you could crash in a dark room on a cot with a soft pillow and blankie for a couple of hours, you might just get to that class, and in a reasonable state, too. Or, if you’ve been working in the library all day, and your eyes are bleary and your brain is fried – hello, the NAP ROOM would allow you to catch that power nap you need before tackling the last third of your essay!)
I have similarly tried to encourage the NAP ROOM in my post-graduate jobs to fight the Three O’Clock Wall (to limited success – one VPs office had a cozy couch and a blanket, and if he wasn’t around on your lunch hour, you could go lie down), but seriously, it’s the most genius idea ever, and no one is listening to me! WHY?
Man, I thought I was the only one who had a cat that insisted on company while eating.
This isn’t really a nap-related solution, but I find if I’m really dragging that a high-dosage B vitamin (I take 150mg) can really help. I needed to get up at 6:30 every morning for work over the summer, and I don’t think I’d have made it without them.
My very favorite function on my alarm clock is the adjustable nap button–I can set it to go off in half an hour (or whatever interval) without having to reset my morning alarm. Which is *perfect* for those times when I have an hour and a half between being in one place and then having to go somewhere else, and if I don’t lie down and close my eyes for a bit I will collapse in public.
And having a cat who likes to curl up on my legs doesn’t hurt, either.
I read a very interesting thing yesterday about the 8-hour night-time sleep (actually in regard to controlled crying – the practice of letting babies scream for as long as it takes for them to realise you’re not coming and they’ll just have to suck it up and fall asleep etc etc blah blah blah, they’re totally trying to manipulate you at six months old on some egotistical whim). I myself can have erratic sleeping habits, just as I did when I was a wee thing and my mother quickly realised that I didn’t need anything, I just wasn’t tired – she eventually just let me play quietly or look at books, whatever the hour. I find I still prefer an early to rise, occasional nap, while away the witching hour as I please approach to bedtime, but it doesn’t really lend itself to the working day. We all know that the 8-hour prescribed night-time sleep is a post-industrial phenomenon, but what I really liked in the article was the description of pre-industrial evening habits. Namely, people did not just sleep when the sun went down then get up at sunrise, it was much more active. People would nap and wake up, and have long conversations by the fire, and then sleep, and may be potter about at 3am, or read, and even take midnight family jaunts to the outhouse. Basically, they didn’t necessarily need a fixed sleeping time, because daytime life didn’t demand it. This concept rocks as far as I’m concerned. And as soon as I get round that lack of independent wealth hurdle and can live such a pastoral existence, I’ll be there. Afternoon nap and all!
zzzzzz…. *snerk* sorry, I dozed off.
I have a hard time stopping the nap once I’ve started–kinda “pre” napover. You know, you’ve had your nap, and your eyes just naturally drift open, and you know you should get up right now, but you are so warm and snuggled just right into the pillow and…. but you don’t go back to sleep, per se–you just kinda drift along with your eyes half closed,vaguely wondering if this is what it’s like when you die–and three hours later, voila! Napover, majorly.
And word on the cats. We feed our cats at seven, but Danny has to start reminding us at five a.m. No wonder I’m so zonked.
I’ve held similar theories to this – napping is only good but in short bursts. Without my daily afternoon naps (in which I would often sort out theoretical difficulties of my work in my sleep believe it or not), my thesis may never have been written!!
I tend to have weird, Harbinger-of-DOOOOOM dreams during naps… things like alien invasions or discovering unexploded Civil War ordnance in the woods behind my parents’ house.
God, I miss naps. 11 hour workdays + a puppy ready to play when I get home = zippy nappy naps. I can’t wait until he’s old enough to nap with me. He’s big enough that he’ll be so much more efficient at warm and fuzzy on those winter afternoon naps than the cat.
I can’t wait to try out your napping tips! Thank you Sars!
KiwiErin… where did you read about the pre-industrial sleep habits? That sounds really interesting and I’d love to check it out.
I’ve found that the 20-minute power nap does wonders for me when I’m on long drives. I live 6 hours away from my family, and I’ll often leave after work on a Friday to visit them. After about 2-3 hours on the road, after an 8 hour workday, I can feel myself start to nod off (*head jerk*). I just pull over at a rest stop and park in the farthest corner, put the seat back, and set the alarm on my cell for 30 minutes. It takes 5-10 to fall asleep, but once I’m out, I’m out, and when I wake up 20 minutes later, I’m good to drive for another couple of hours. I’m positive this has saved me from careening down an embankment on I-65.
I actually was sucked into this Power Nap cd that kept being advertised in the “quick links” bar atop my gmail (no doubt due to all the emails I’d send complaining about how tired I was). basically, it’s this CD that purports to give you 3 hours’ worth of rest in 20 minutes, thanks to its replication of human brainwave patterns & blah blah blah…I’m pretty sure the 20 minutes=3 hours thing has to be bullshit, but it’s actually really helpful in terms of waking you up after a nap. I too suffer from the overlong nap-coma, & it’s been a godsend (I also use it in the mornings to help get the most out of my snoozetime).
this is totally going to sound like I work for them, but given that this seems to be a forum of hardcore nappers, I thought I’d throw it out there. they just emailed me saying that they’d come out with a “new & improved” version of the CD, & I bought that too, such is the extent of my commitment to productive napping.
I love me my nap! I’ve heard that in order to keep the nap to about 20 minutes, drink some caffeine right before going down. Apparently it takes about 20 minutes to really kick in, and it will do so right about the time the powernap should end. (I haven’t tried this yet.) Sometimes I naturally wake up at 20 minutes, but sometimes I go on for an hour or two. On these occasions, I chalk it up to “my body needed it.”
I’ve always said that my “system just isn’t built for naps,” but I shall try your methods, madam! Thanks for the how-to.
(By the way, I hope all is well with you. We haven’t been in communication in some time. This year has just been ridiculous for me.)
On my days off, I love to nap. But if I closed the door to my office and tried to take a 25-er at work, my boss would shit kittens.
Such a shame. I guess to nap on a work day I need to take the day off.
I *lurve* my naps. I wish I could take one mid-afternoon at work. I’m totally on the NAP ROOM bandwagon (flatbed?).
My best friend cannot regulate naps. If she lays down, she’s out for at lest 3 hours. If I try to wake her up after 20-30 min, she just sort of hmms at me and rolls over. If we lay down at the same time (we’re roommates), I’m up at least 2 hours before she is.
ITA about highway catnapping. If I have to take one at night, I usually park directly under a street light, near the door if I can, and then I put the drivers’ seat back and “sleep” with one eye open, my seatbelt on, and the keys in the ignition. Even then, it really helps a lot. I suppose I’m a little crazed with the precaution-taking, but: be careful where you nap, y’all. (Why, no, I don’t watch too many crime shows on tv…. why do you ask?)
Naps are essential, like air and water, in my world. When I had cats, they were the ultimate nap inducer. I’d swear that I wasn’t tired, but let one of them fall asleep on me and I’d be out cold five minutes later. Now that I have a baby, I try to nap with her in the afternoons. She’s usually down for 90 minutes to two hours, but I’ll cuddle up with her for an hour or so and it is divine.
The only “bad” thing about m marriage is that my husband doesn’t share my pro-nap agenda and says that napping only makes him more tired. I do wish that taking a little siesta was more acceptable in our culture. I agree it would make us happier and healthier. And maybe even *more* productive!
Naps are one of the many things I *still* miss about my college life, even though I graduated…um, a long time ago. Class or two in the morning, quick morning nap if I had a 9 AM and 11 AM but not a 10 AM, then lunch, then maybe another nap before afternoon seminar, then stay up later in the evening to do homework. I work so much better that way than doing 8 hours at once. We do need to bring back the siesta.
Courtney, if you like CDs I strongly recommend the Monroe Institute’s Hemi Sync “Catnapper” CD – even if you can’t drift off, you can feel those sound waves massaging your brain… bliss!
For anyone with trouble waking up, Ikea & a few other places do talking alarm clocks, where you can record your own memo to remind your dozy brain about the important reasons to get up. Ikea’s is called Slabang and is available in the States, there are probably cheaper models on e-Bay.
Very interesting re the pre-industrial sleep habits, a quick search on those terms has turned up some interesting stuff, so thanks for that!
as for how to be less insomniac… warm milk w/ a teaspoon of vanilla and as much honey as you can stand won’t help you fall asleep, but it is very soothing. Add a pinch of nutmeg and you have Christmas in a cup!
When I need to fall asleep and know I can sleep for at least 7 hours, I take a benadryl. I tend to be congested anyway, so it’s not harming me. and those antihistamines are great at making me drift off….zzzzz
AMEN Sars. Once again you hit the nail on the head. My family are notorious nappers, having earned our nickname the ‘VonNaps’. We learned from my Dad, who is self employed and since 1968 has been turning off the phone and locking the door to his office from 2-3pm for his daily nap. And yes, he is the most productive, creative guy I know. And quite well rested! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Monica – the article was in the recent edition of North & South Magazine – A New Zealand publication (as in the North and the South Islands), and not to be mistaken with some Civil War Reinactment journal! It doesn’t appear to have an online edition and as this was a pick up at a cafe and “ooh, this article looks interesting” moment, I can’t even remember the title.
Anyway, the bit about pre-industrial sleeping habits was in regard to babies. They’re not wired to sleep through the night, because we’re probably not either.
Sorry I can’t be of more help.
I’m the chairman of the D.S.A. – that’s the Daytime Sleepers Association. Our motto – Early to bed, late to rise, and plenty of sleep in between!
This reminds me of something I saw on a news show a long time ago about these places you could go in Tokyo and sleep in some kind of pod thing. I couldn’t remember if it was for overnighters or naps (I really think they were for naps) so I Googled it and found this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0902/p12s02-lign.html
The things in Tokyo are called Capsule Hotels!
Thank you, Sars and Jiffyjiff for the insomnia tips. For someone who loves to nap as much as I do, the idea of having trouble SLEEPING is a bit scary. And I will definitely try the Christmas in a cup!! :)
How does one get a nap at work, exactly? My campus has a lovely Nap Room — technically it’s called the Music Listening Room, but come on. Comfy couches, Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” on the headphones, I’m out. But when I’m in the office? We don’t have a lot of doors to close — if I were desperate for a nap I’d have to camp out in the wheelchair stall of the ladies’ room.
Dang, I can’t nap. Can’t sleep on planes either. It sounds lovely, though.
Even when my kids were newborns, no go. I can’t fall asleep when my brain is racing.
The two or three times I’ve managed to nap in my adult life have left me feeling like I have a major hangover.
At my old job I used to have an office, and I’d totally close the door during lunchtime, eat my sandwich in the first ten minutes, climb under my desk (I kept a blanket and pillow down there at all times), set my cell phone to go off in a half hour, and pass the hell out. That still left me ten minutes for snooze and ten minutes to walk around, drink some water, and generally shake off the fuzzies just in time for the lunch hour to be over.
Now I have a cubicle again, damn it.
I’m SO on the nap room bandwagon.
Yes! This summer I’ve randomly started taking afternoon naps. They are glorious, and I am so much more productive the rest of the day. Although I do tend to over nap and I have to sit around for a while waiting to wake up properly.
ah, i love napping. there’s nothing better than sprawling out on the couch, grabbing the kitten, putting on some droning talk show and tv, and passing out for a bit. i always wake up after 30 minutes though – it’s amazing.
a bit off-topic, but kinda related to the anti-napover wakeup. does anyone know of an alarm clock that, when alarming, gradually raises the volume of the music being played? and you can hook up a cd and make it alarm on a certain song? my friend had it, i think it was bose (but not sure), and it was the most amazing invention ever.
The only time I ever was able to nap was freshman year of college..and when my boys were babies. When they were toddlers we used to put them down for a “Happy Nappy.”
Now my oldest is a freshman in college. I just called his cell in the middle of the day and woke him up! His reply, “I’m sleeping, I don’t have my next class for another hour, sheesh, Mom!!”
Hooray for the Happy Nappy.
God I miss being able to nap. I’m such a fan that back when I was in high school I used to pop into the nurse’s office during study hall and take a nap instead. It was great- quiet, cot, pillow, and a nice lady to wake me up 5 minutes before the bell rang. I still maintain that it was far more valuable than study hall ever was.
It’s so much harder to get a decent nap in as a (supposed) grown up. It doesn’t help that my kitten is refusing to operate on my schedule this month.
You know, I used to work at the Church of Christian Science headquarters, and they DID have Nap Rooms. Futon, pillow, blanket, alarm clock, the whole nine. I think their reasoning was that since all forms of drugs were banned (including tea and chocolate, because of the caffeine!), they had better have something in place for when people got a headache, or everyone would just go home when they felt a bit ill.
I had some great mid-afternoon naps on that thing during my post-lunch crash, though, I tell you what.
I have a “blue collar” job with the shift work it entails. In our mess room consisting of a table and 4 chairs I have created quite the nap area with 3 or 4 of the chairs placed side to side to lie down on and a larger co worker’s uniform coat which can be used as a comforter. I have quite happily spent 2 hours napping at a time. Other busier times find four of us with our heads on the table lights out sleeping until a particularly loud snore wakes us. god bless the unions!
Oy. I normally don’t (and can’t) want to nap at work, but it seems my body turns itself off sometime between 2 pm and 3 pm for about 10-20 minutes anyway. It’s always been annoying, particularly in uni when I had 1.5-hour-long classes at 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm (usually consecutively). I was always made fun of by my friends for falling asleep in class. I tried everything to stay awake, nothing ever worked short of leaving the classroom and splashing cold water on my face.
Now at work, I get a half-cubicle (two walls and the rest of my desk exposed to the rest of the office). Falling asleep even for a short nap is tricky, and you know that if the boss walks by and sees you napping, you’ll be docked on your performance review. And yet, no matter what I do, my body does it anyway. I’ve fallen asleep over work without realizing until I wake up 10 minutes later to see that my highlighter has bled through 7-8 pages. Argh.
Why can’t they allow siestas in N. Am. culture already??
Dreaming about George Clooney rhythmically jamming plugs into sockets? Yeah, I don’t think we need to go to Freud to figure that one out.
I’m a nap fan from way back and would LOVE to live in a siesta culture. And it’s totally normal to feel sleepy after eating – your body’s hard at work, digesting! It needs a rest!