Tag Archives: nap

Afternoon rest

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Well, I just flaked out for a couple hours. Thought I was going to head out grocery shopping and haven’t made it out yet. But today is the last day of the winter break and I’m grateful to be able to give myself some down time. My next 3 weeks are jam packed and so if I want to take a little afternoon nap today… well permission granted. 😀

My evening will include a bit of meal prep, and a bit of listening to my audio book. And an early bed time. Tomorrow will be a full day, in high gear, and the pace won’t stop. But today, I savour the quiet time, and enjoy the slower pace. That said, it’s time to get off the couch.

My focus on school begins tomorrow, and that will probably reflect in the topics I choose to write about. Afternoon naps will not be the topic of conversation in the coming days!

Power naps

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I love power naps. Give me 20-40 minutes of quiet or soft non-lyrical music and a flat surface and I can nap just about anywhere. But quiet is a luxury, I could even nap on a pool bench with multiple Fox-40 whistles being blown as a water polo game is in progress.

Just give me a power nap and I’ll be back fresher than ever. But extend my rest time past 40 minutes and the power part of the power nap is inversely affected. Then I feel groggy for the rest of the day. Then I stay up too late and have another low power day on the horizon.

So while a quiet space might be a minor concern for me and my naps, either a timer or alarm is an essential. I’ve got to keep that time in check, then I’m returning from my nap fully charged.

Afternoon nap

I just woke up from a 2+ hour nap. I didn’t sleep well last night, but now I’m in jeopardy of a repeat, because I won’t be able to fall asleep until after midnight. I remember reading that an ideal nap time is about 20 minutes. This gives you the rest you need, without over-doing it. I really over-did it!

I wish they I lived in a country that had siesta times. I love late nights, I love early mornings. If I were to design my own schedule, I’d go to bed after midnight, sleep until 5:30, and have a 1-2 hour nap starting at 2pm. Unfortunately, that schedule would be awful for my wife, so I don’t think I’ll adopt it even after retiring.

Maybe with this lengthy nap, I’ll give that schedule a test run for tonight, and be back on a ‘normal’ schedule tomorrow. 7 hours is about my ideal length of sleep each night, 9 hours leads to a headache. I wonder if my idea of an ideal schedule is only that… an idea, and really I should just stick to 7 hours a night and maybe 20 minute naps on weekends.

2 hours is just a bit unrealistic, and probably going to mess me up. What’s your ideal nap time?

Afternoon naps

Just woke up from a long afternoon nap. I feel great. I know I’ll be up for hours now. I think my body would respond well to living in a country that did siestas. I love staying up late. I love waking up early. I love taking afternoon naps.

Last night I went to sleep around midnight. I was up at 5:30am to do a Zoom call with my uncle in Ontario, and then I had this wonderful afternoon nap. It was a perfect day already and I have hours of awake time still to go. When I retire, I can see this being a regular routine for me. My day will include both watching sun rises and sunsets, and snoozing after lunch. That’s a perfect schedule for me… too bad I can’t make it work before retirement. 😀

Power naps

I wonder if this is related to my age, or if there are some other factors, but my ability to take power naps has changed. I used to be able to lie down for a quick nap, and set an alarm for 15-20, maybe 25 minutes. When my alarm went off, I could just pop up and continue with my day, feeling fully refreshed.

Now, 25-30 minutes never seems like it’s enough. If I set an alarm for a power nap these days, the alarm because an annoying interruption, before going back to sleep again… and if I do force myself to get up, I certainly don’t feel refreshed.

I also find that I need a bit more sleep at night too. That’s not very surprising because I used to need only 5-6 hours sleep, and it’s probably good that I get a bit more than that as a norm. Still, I miss my power naps. I miss that feeling like I’ve supercharged myself in a short burst, preparing myself to tackle the day with a full battery.

I think I’m going to experiment a bit in the coming weekends (and occasional evenings) and see if I can’t do a sort of a reset… Maybe I’ve just gotten used to needing more time because I have given myself permission to take more time. I’m going to set my alarm for 20 minutes when I nap and stick to that time. Any longer and it’s not a power nap, it’s just an old guy snoring on the couch. 🤣