Are you a napper?
If naps come easily to you, if you can power up your battery with a few minutes of shut eye, give thanks and share this one with someone who can’t.
Some of us have never been nappers. Our mothers put us down for a nap and we played with the toys in our crib, or maybe even tried to climb out. There may also have been some fussing involved.
For some of us, this carried over into adulthood. We still don’t want to miss out on a thing and would rather drag ourselves around getting that one more thing done than to stop and take a rest. And if we do lie down and close our eyes, it’s hard to stay there long enough to really relax and maybe even doze off.
But we are adults and we can do hard things—especially when they are good for us in the short and long run.
The American Heart Association offers these questions intended to help us know if we would benefit from the good ol’ nap:
Do you get less than the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night?
After lunch, do you start to feel cranky and irritable?
Are you bright and alert in the morning, but find it hard to concentrate by the afternoon?
Do you need another cup of coffee or a sugary energy drink just to make it to dinner?
And the Mayo Clinic recommends making time for a quick nap if you:
Start to feel tired or sleepy during the day.
Are about to lose some sleep — for example, due to a long work shift.
Want to make planned naps part of your daily routine.
Emerging personal research (on myself) corroborates this information.
We’re on the road this weekend and yesterday, during a two hour break between two meetings, I recognized the signs and directed myself to take a nap. We had a 5 hour drive coming up (after the last meeting) and I knew we’d both be too tired to safely drive. So, while Ricardo reviewed his presentation, I walked myself over to the car, laid the seat back down, curled up, and closed my eyes.
Maybe that’s all you need to do to enter the napping zone. Not me.
Typically, I have a hard time getting still enough to actually doze off, but lately I’ve found a little trick that is working—for napping and falling asleep more quickly at night. Here’s what it looks like:
Close your eyes and picture sleep moving in your direction, on the verge of overtaking you. Picture yourself stopping to rest with the expectation that sleep is on its way—you just have to wait for it.
That’s what I did, and within probably 10 minutes, I was napping. They say a nap should be under 30 minutes to prevent waking up groggy and interfering with nighttime sleep. I slept for almost an hour and it did take a few minutes to get going again, but then I felt refreshed and so much better than I usually do in the mid afternoon.
It would th lovely to hear from you—if and how you nap along with any tips you might have for us. Please consider leaving a comment or just replying to the email.
And in case you’d like a little more encouragement for working naps into your life, consider these benefits provided by the American Heart Association:
Increased alertness
Attitude adjustment: After a nap, you’ll be less impulsive and better able to deal with frustration — in other words, you’ll be in a better mood. Napping kills the crankiness.
Improved memory: A nap can make it easier to recall facts learned earlier that day.
A creative mindset:
Cash saver: A nap is cheaper than energy drinks and coffee (and healthier)
May you find moments of rest throughout this new week.
Alicia
Dear Alicia: I'm one of those people who normally drop off immediately as soon as I hit the pillow. But what I have found helpful when there is some issue that's going around and around in my mind hindering sleep is to pray over and over the Jesus Prayer - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." (some leave out the last two words) - from the Orthodox tradition. It is about recalling yourself before Jesus, bringing yourself back, stopping the wandering thoughts. It is described beautifully in "The Way of a Pilgrim: Candid Tales of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father", an anonymous 19th century Russian novel first translated to English in the 1930's and brought to America.
The cutest photo! Beautiful!