Need advice on NAPPING

[dragnlaw]

This is a NEW FORUM solely to discuss NAPPING, TAKING A QUICK SHUT EYE, and any other title to describe the above.
By creating this public forum "Napping" can now be considered an official HOBBY.


Hi all! I'm new to napping and was wondering if any of you old timers had some suggestions for me.

I've heard that napping with your shoes on is not good form. Is that true? I hope not as I do all the time.

What about having a snack? Is it better to have a snack before? or after napping?

Looking forward to meeting all you 'regulars'.

 

[medtran49]

My snack is usually what makes me want to nap! LOL! I don't wear shoes in the house, so my naps are always sans shoes.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Never NAP for more than 20 minutes. Don't know why, but that's what I've read.

 

[Farmer Jon]

Napping is a dangerous game for me. Might be 20 minutes might be 3 hours. I never know.

 

[dragnlaw]

Never NAP for more than 20 minutes. Don't know why, but that's what I've read.

Forgotten that! You're right. Years ago once the kids started school it was the first time I ever got to catch-up in badly needed sleep. If I only napped for 20 minutes it was very refreshing. If I zonked out for a couple of hours I would wake up groggy and had a hard time to shake the lethargy.

 

[Andy M.]

To be successful at napping, you can't have any rules. Rules create stress and stress interferes with napping. Just relax and let it happen. Your body will tell you how long to nap.

I typically nap in the late afternoon or even the early evening. Sometimes SO has to wake me up to start dinner. No set time, no rules. If I feel sleepy I recline and close my eyes. Having the TV on for some background noise works for me.

If you're a little groggy when you wake up, splash some cold water on your face and take a walk around the living room.

Happy napping.

 

[Silversage]

I want to retire so that I can nap..........

 

[dragnlaw]

To be successful at napping, you can't have any rules. Rules create stress and stress interferes with napping. Just relax and let it happen. Your body will tell you how long to nap.


Happy napping.

Ahhh but sometimes you have to. Should I accidentally crash and sleep thru dusk without closing up the geese'n chickens it just leaves the table open to coyotes/fox/wolves to come for dinner. Certainly not groggy when I wake up and it is dark outside - that's a jolt for the ol'ticker!


Gosh, never thought this hobby would have been so popular - thanks for the suggestion to CWS and roadfix!

 

[Andy M.]

Ahhh but sometimes you have to. Should I accidentally crash and sleep thru dusk without closing up the geese'n chickens it just leaves the table open to coyotes/fox/wolves to come for dinner...

Your brain won't let you be irresponsible. If the time is approaching for tending to your birds, you will know that and be ready. In that circumstance, you probably won't be able to nap because you know you have things to do.

 

[msmofet]

Ahhh but sometimes you have to. Should I accidentally crash and sleep thru dusk without closing up the geese'n chickens it just leaves the table open to coyotes/fox/wolves to come for dinner. Certainly not groggy when I wake up and it is dark outside - that's a jolt for the ol'ticker!


Gosh, never thought this hobby would have been so popular - thanks for the suggestion to CWS and roadfix!

Set an alarm.

 

[Just Cooking]

If I only napped for 20 minutes it was very refreshing. If I zonked out for a couple of hours I would wake up groggy and had a hard time to shake the lethargy.

That's us..I quick nap and Jeannie zonks out.. I'm ready to go and often, she wishes she hadn't napped..

Ross

 

[roadfix]

I love napping out in the balcony on my lounger or hammock in the middle of the afternoon when it's about 60 degrees out. My cats would sometimes join me.

 

[dragnlaw]

Your brain won't let you be irresponsible. If the time is approaching for tending to your birds, you will know that and be ready. In that circumstance, you probably won't be able to nap because you know you have things to do.

Set an alarm.

Andy It's one of the reasons I had to let the horses go... I couldn't bear it if I did something irresponsible just because my body 'wanted' to.

I also know about that "jolting awake" from personal experience. One day I'll have to tell you about the raccoons and my chickens. Murdering bustards.

msmofet LOL - I do now!

 

[Kayelle]

I nap nearly daily but it has to be in bed with the blinds drawn and with my trusty sleep mask. Sometimes I set the alarm for an hour around 2pm, other times I don't care how long I sleep. I call it OPN....Old People Nap. How the heck did I get this old this fast?

 

[RPCookin]

I lie down on the bed to nap, and I nap until I wake up. Sometimes I don't even fall asleep. Other times I'll sleep for a few minutes and wake up, or I may sleep for 2 hours. I figure that my body will do what it needs. I rarely sleep more than 6 hours at night any more, so when I have the chance to take one, an afternoon nap helps me through the rest of the evening.

The only time I'll set an alarm is if I have to be awake for some reason at a certain time.

 

[GotGarlic]

I nap nearly daily but it has to be in bed with the blinds drawn and with my trusty sleep mask. Sometimes I set the alarm for an hour around 2pm, other times I don't care how long I sleep. I call it OPN....Old People Nap. How the heck did I get this old this fast?

After my mom retired in her late 50s, she started taking afternoon naps and she said she felt old, too. I told everyone I worked with wished they could take an afternoon nap [emoji38] The Spanish afternoon siesta is so civilized.

I usually have a hard time sleeping during the day, but if I don't sleep well at night, I can. I took one today because the storm woke me up last night.

 

[CWS4322]

When a friend was doing her Ph.D., she was researching narcolepsy and sleep apnea, shift workers sleep patterns (she now is a prof at Harvard). She needed a control group. I volunteered. I learned a lot about my sleep patterns. I dive from level 1 to level 4 in about 5 minutes and stay there. I skip the other levels of sleep. When I hit level 4, it takes about 90 minutes for me to go into REM. My ideal nap is 40 minutes. I am one of those people that comes up from level 4 to awake in a shockingly short period of time, but when I am at level 4, I am there. Dead to the world. I believe in napping. Ironically, I quit napping when I was 18 months old. Now I love naps.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I used to nap when I got up earlier in the morning. Now that I regularly sleep until 11 or noon* I can't justify a nap.

*Don't judge. I usually don't go to be until 4 or 5 AM. Night owls, we are. As Himself says, "someone has to wake the birds up".

...What about having a snack? Is it better to have a snack before? or after napping?...

There was a sleep specialist on the Rachael Ray show sometime over the summer. His suggestion for a 20-minute nap was to drink a cup worth of hot/warm coffee right before you lay down. The logic is that warm liquid will relax you, and it takes about 20 minutes before the caffeine is processed. That way the caffeine hits your system just about the time you want to wake up. He said that it never fails for him. I haven't tested this myself, though. So...do you like coffee?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I had three meetings today where I wished I could have napped. If I had, maybe I'd be more relaxed now and able to nod off for the night. I wake up in the morning tired as ever, go to bed wide awake. Crazy!

It's been over a year since I went to dayshift, I still can't sleep at night without chemical help, but can nod off during the day.

 

[Cheryl J]

Ooooh....napping. When I don't have Tyler in the afternoons, I relax in the recliner and can fall asleep in a heartbeat. The other day I turned on a movie I had DVR'ed and kicked back in the recliner to watch it. I fast forwarded through the first commercial and next thing I knew the movie was over - I FF'ed it through the entire movie and slept through it.