Naps

[haha]

I would like to start getting up early, but continue to go to bed late. This will not work unless I can learn to nap, and so far I have had zero luck learning how.

Are there techniques? I fall to sleep easily anytime after 10pm, but can't seem to during the day, even in a darkened room. No matter how tired I am I just get wired rather than sleepy.

Ha

 

[twaddle]

Have turkey for lunch. Or a nooner. But never both at the same time.

 

[Nords]

Are there techniques? I fall to sleep easily anytime after 10pm, but can't seem to during the day, even in a darkened room. No matter how tired I am I just get wired rather than sleepy.

Most nappers report the best results by engaging in sex just before the nap.

I guess it'd also work if you set an alarm for 30-40 minutes, put on an eye mask, and meditated quietly until the alarm went off.

 

[Telly]

Napping is practicing for death. If it doesn't come naturally, don't force it

Some suggestions: No coffee; Put the lime in the coconut and drink them both together; Try ~30 minutes after finishing lunch by sitting in a comfy chair and thinking about something; Turn on the TV to something benign. It's best to be moving around doing things, then feeling a bit tired, and then sitting down, rather than trying to "force" yourself to be sleepy when you aren't.

If you burn the candle at both ends long enough, it should happen anyway, just recognize the moment and do it.

 

[justin]

Have a couple of kids age 2 and under running around you all day. And make sure they cry periodically throughout the night on the day before you want to nap. Works for DW!

 

[mickeyd]

so far I have had zero luck learning how.

Have you tried watching Opera? ZZZZZZZZZ

 

[Nords]

Have a couple of kids age 2 and under running around you all day. And make sure they cry periodically throughout the night on the day before you want to nap.

That's the inevitable downside to the sex-before-nap strategy...

 

[flipstress]

Wiki's How To Nap

Here's only one set of results from a Google search: How to Nap - wikiHow

Personally, compared to Wiki's 5 steps, I like the forum's own:

1. Have sex (or substitute vigorous exercise).

2. Have a turkey dinner. (I wonder if pasta would work, too.)

3. Listen to some relaxing music (like instrumental new-age or soothing classical as long as it doesn't annoy or excite you).

4. Read a boring book.

5. Meditate or just relax. I heard of an exercise where you try to relax every part of your body--top to bottom or bottom to top--but I've never tried it.

 

[Goonie]

I usually take an afternoon siesta just about everyday around 1pm.

My technique? I sit down in the lazy-boy, kick it back, and within minutes I'm off in la-la land. It doesn't matter if I'm tired or wide awake....whether I'm pumped full of caffeine or not....doesn't matter if it's quiet or noisy, bright or dark. When that lazy-boy tips back....this lazy-boy zonks out!

I'm kinda like that one doll my sister had when she was a kid......you tip the doll backwards, and the eyelids slam shut!

Good luck on your journey to the Land of Nap!

 

[citrine]

Go back to work! At 1:00pm every afternoon, I am ready for a nap...unfortunately, I sit in the middle of the room in a cubicle farm....too much traffic going by to take a few zzzz's.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Ha,

Start by getting up REALLY early. I get up at 05:30 and am fading by noon. I go out to my car, recline the seat and take a few Z's. (That's 'zeds' in Canadian.)

 

[cube_rat]

Go through (peri)menopause where you CAN'T sleep at all at night. Then have said lack of sleep catch up around 1:30-2pm somewhere between the carbohydrate crash after lunch and a boring mega corp meeting with some bozo talking about "reaching out to so and so" and "great call outs".

The pharmaceutical companies should engineer and market a pill derived from the chemicals that keep 40-50-ish year old women up all night long. This would make a killing with the truck driver and 3rd shift worker market.

 

[Nords]

It's not so much being up all night as it is waking at 2:30 or 3 AM with your brain buzzing. Then I know that I'll be napping by noon.

The pharmaceutical companies should engineer and market a pill derived from the chemicals that keep 40-50-ish year old women up all night long.

I thought that was Navy coffee... the kind that sits on the warming plate all day, where you can smell the caffeine oozing out of your pores five minutes after you drink your fifth cup!

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I've perfected napping to an art form, if I do say so.

My advice: don't worry about napping. Just lie down without an agenda. A 20 minute daydream is pretty nice, too. If you sleep, perchance to dream, so much the better, but don't make that the goal, or you'll sabotage your effort.

After a week or two of daydream breaks, I bet you'll find yourself dozing here and there. If not, you've built a pretty nice slow-down into your routine.

DW gets frustrated with me because I can sit in my favorite easy chair with the news on, and catch a 10 minute nap before dinner or pretty much any other time. Just lucky I guess. We stay up til midnight most nights.

 

[Moemg]

Naping is a talent like dancing or cooking and can't be taught you have to be born with the ability to be a napper .Me,I am an excellent naper but a clutsy dancer so appreciate your talents .

 

[Texas Proud]

Go back to work! At 1:00pm every afternoon, I am ready for a nap...unfortunately, I sit in the middle of the room in a cubicle farm....too much traffic going by to take a few zzzz's.

LOL>>> it is usually 2 PM for me... and I do it anyhow (but try not to)... they have PICTURES!!! And it is a running joke with the guys yelling 'wake up'... even if I am not napping...

Glad that when my boss was in the next cube he knew that I was good and didn't fire me... then again.. it usually was only a minute or two that it happened....

 

[yakers]

This is sooo easy, 1) go back to work 2) eat a nice lunch 3) darkened conference room with..... Powerpoint presentation.
Works so well that loud announcements are made before the lights come back on.

 

[Telly]

I got in a little "practicing for death" after lunch today. About an hour's worth.

Any luck yet, Ha? Do one of us need to come over and bonk ya on the head with a comic mallet to put you out like a light?

 

[Zipper]

Reminds me of a school trip many years ago to the Toronto Planeterium.

After a few minutes in the dark watching the show in our reclining seats Mr. Zipper fell asleep.

 

[haha]

Thanks for all your great suggestions. Let's see if I have it now-I stay up really late, get up really early, go back to work, eat a big pasta lunch, go into a dark meeting and make love while someone makes Powerpoint presentations?

I never expected that napping would be so much fun!

Ha

 

[starter82]

For me, it's not the same. Naps and sleeping at night are very different. It's an acceptable alternative if needed, but I don't recommend. Maybe it'll work for you; however, depending on how long I nap, it can trigger a migraine.

 

[me_no_boss]

Another surefire method is go take a long drive on I5 between Modesto and Stockton.

What works for me is to drink coffee in the afternoon.
Here how.
You drink a grande Starbucks at 2pm everyday for 4 weeks.
Then you go cold turkey. You'd be in sandman's company in no time from cafeine withdrawal.
Don't have sex.

 

[citrine]

Another good thing is to adopt a couple of cats....nothing better than watching some tv and have them sit in your lap purring....lulls you to sleep in a heartbeat!

 

[me_no_boss]

Here is serious reply.
I find that even if I don't fall asleep, a 15-30 minutes of deep relaxation is almost as good.
First I find a room where it is quiet and cool.
I put on soft foam ear plugs. They are comfortable.
Then I put on sound cancellation headphones and play nature sound cds' on very low volume so I can barely hear it.
Then I use a visualization technique of putting all the stress issues into a virtual waste basket.
Downside is the smoke alarm may go off and I won't hear it.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Let's see if I have it now-I stay up really late, get up really early, go back to work, eat a big pasta lunch, go into a dark meeting and make love while someone makes Powerpoint presentations?

I think you've got it.