Napping Trick

[TromboneAl]

Does this happen to you? It's after lunch, and you're reading a book, and you start to fall asleep. Perhaps the book falls, or your eyes close while you're holding the book.

So you put the book down to take a nap, and what happens? You wake up!

This happens to me often, and I figure it's because as soon as I stop reading, I start thinking about something that I'm going to do or something else that wakes me up.

I found a solution: Listen to an audiobook. Choose a book that's not exciting and is something you don't need to follow. For example, Stephen Fry's autobiography is excellent, but I don't care if I miss parts:

I put the volume down low, pay attention, and soon I'm asleep, sometimes for too long.

 

[Red Badger]

I take a short nap most days. I set my phone alarm for 20-30 minutes. I'm out shortly after setting the alarm. Longer naps leave me groggy and may make night sleep hard to come by. My short naps are blissful tidbits of my retirement buffet.

 

[Dtail]

I nap about 4 days a week, usually for around 20-25 minutes. Wake up naturally.
One of the really nice perks of retirement.

 

[euro]

Salvador Dali, the Spanish painter was said to take naps sitting on a chair placed on sheet metal, with a metal spoon placed on his head. When he dozed off, the spoon slid off his head and hit the sheet metal, waking him up immediately. Dali claimed that the amount of sleep he got in this way was enough to make him feel rested and refreshed. Eccentric? Yep...

 

[sengsational]

I do get sleepy during afternoon reading, but don't usually have the problem of waking up when the book gets closed. It's happened to me, but when it does, I just get to avoid a nap, which is my usual goal. My goal is to get all my sleep "at night" (which can end as late as 11am). All that being said, sometimes I'll set down the book and take a cat nap.