I looooove to nap! I have rules about napping though. After I get up in the morning I cannot sleep under the covers unless I am sick. For naps I will lay on my bed with a lightweight comforter only used for napping on top.

I try to take a nap every Sunday afternoon, only on the couch though. I, too have rules about that.

Every chance I get:) Love Sunday afternoon naps!

Naps...they're great! There are certain times when I am the energizer bunny and feel wide awake all day. Then there are periods, and I think it might be hormonal, when I am almost too sleepy to function. Trying to push on through is useless, in my experience. A little lie-down is all I can do. No rules, except I try to keep it to about an hour otherwise it messes up my night sleep. The other thing is that I have kids whose evenings are busy and I can easily be on the move with them (HS students have athletic matches that can go until 9 pm) until 10 pm sometimes. I look at that afternoon nap as refueling for the driving and such that I end up having to do into the evening. Again, I don't always need them but if I do, I figure it's my body's wisdom telling me something.

If I'm up really early ( like 5 a.m. ) I'll try to have a small nap at one point in the afternoon, so I can stay reasonably awake through the evening - like some of the above, naps are taken on the couch, in broad daylight - I don't want to fall in a deep sleep.

Yesterday I napped around 6:30 p.m., I thought what the heck, I'll stay up a little later. It worked, I was able to stay up till 11 and I was up this morning at 6, much better than 5:00 a.m. !! I was able to do that because DH is away, it would be weird to do that when he is home.

Unfortunately, I nap at the movies, can't go to any showing at all, sitting in a dark room no matter what time puts me to sleep.

No, I try not to nap, ever, because I always regret it when I do. I wake up feeling like a confused owl, and cannot get to sleep that night.

One of the best things about being retired is that I can take naps whenever I want. I love a good nap!

Not a regular napper, but when I do, it has to be on a sofa or chair, not on/in bed. In my world, naps are an indulgence and require a different setting than sleep.

I am like KSWL. If I nap, it usually interferes with my sleep that night. Really, I think I am one who requires less sleep than some, so I'm not much of a napper. Occasionally hubby and I will nap on Sunday afternoons, or days we are off, etc. and once in a great while, I might take a short nap on a day I am home alone. But it always kind of "throws me off". DLM - I'm the opposite, if I am going to sleep at all, it must be in the bed. I cannot fall asleep in a chair or on the sofa.

My dad is so funny. Since he's been on his own, he's realized that he is retired and "old enough" (he's 82) to have earned the right to nap. I think that's really how he looks at it. So, he takes a short nap just about every afternoon. Years ago mom bought a gorgeous antique upholstered chaise lounge and that's become dad's napping spot. Along with his BEACH TOWEL he uses as a blanket. LOL!!

I often feel like I need a nap but can't fall asleep if I try to do it on purpose.

But, occasionally I will fall asleep watching tv in the afternoon for 15-20 minutes in the afternoon, and I always feel refreshed.

My sister is a little younger than me and teaches 5th grade. She takes a short nap every day after work, otherwise she can't get through the evening as her day is so exhausting, and she still has hours of work ahead of her.

I say go for it.

I rarely nap unless I'm ill.

I have the ability to say to myself "you can rest for 20 minutes" and somehow I always wake up, fully alert, and it's 20 minutes later. I don't go fully to sleep but into that wonderful, restful feeling of only being maybe 5% awake. It's like dozing at the beach - I am somewhat aware of sounds around me but they don't interfere with my rest.

I don't know that I have that skill in any other area of my life. I can't read for just 20 minutes, I can't remember to check something in the oven or the dryer in 20 minutes, but I can do it with a nap.

I can rest in my reading chair, on the sofa, on a patio chair (nothing is sweeter than a 20 minute cat nap on the back porch on a warm day!), or on my bed with just a throw (sometimes a beach towel like tina's Dad) covering me, never fully under the covers.

As long as my nap is before 4 pm, it doesn't interfere with my nightly rest. It doesn't happen very often but the days I do it I figure I must need the extra rest so I don't fight it.

What kswl said. I never nap any more. Naps would seriously interfere with that night's sleep. I also usually would wake up feeling almost drugged, in a sick way - not rested at all. I'm sure I'd nap if I were ill, but (knock on wood and all that), I haven't even had a cold in a couple of years.

I don't regularly nap, but I love them. Like many of you, though, it has to be on the sofa or on our made bed with a throw over me, never in bed under the covers unless I'm sick. M-F, DH and I are up at 5:30AM. While he gets ready for work, I make us breakfast and pack his lunch. He's headed to work by 6:45, which would be the ideal time for me to take a nap, but I'm a morning person. I enjoy being up and busy then. I sometimes take an hour or so nap around 3:30PM, but I hate the groggy feeling I have for the next hour after I wake up. When I do nap on the sofa, my little dog Chloe will jump up and snuggle with me, while our Dobie, Ronin, curls up on the rug next to me. It's very cozy and I should do it more often.

I never nap, ever. If I go to sleep, my body thinks it has to sleep for hours; maybe thinks it's bedtime. If I try to take a short nap, I'd have to set an alarm and I awaken feeling as if I've been drugged or have a horrible hangover - shaky, disoriented, head in a fog. So I avoid them at all costs.

I am envious of those who can take a 20 min refresh snooze.

I have no rules about naps, never have. LOVE naps! I prefer under the covers and snuggly. I have a 9 month old so I try to take a nap on the weekends when he does since I feel sleep deprived most of the time still. Seems like the past month one or the other kid has been sick and I have not been getting much sleep.

Naps are my friend. :)

All the time but never in the bed, as terriks posted, that's for when I'm sick. We have a small sitting room with a big comfy sofa and that's the napping/reading room.

The dogs nap with me and I can usually start dreaming almost immediately. 20 minute naps are very refreshing and longer is for when I didn't get a good nights sleep.
I have two dogs, both seniors, and one is having some issues. So, she needs to go out at night every 2-3 hours and the past few weeks have been tiring.

I envy people who can nap! Every once in a while I feel like I could really use a nap, but if I try, I just can't.

In general, though, the time of day when I most need a nap is just when things are getting busy here in the afternoon when kids are coming home from school. My best downtime is 3 afternoons a week after I drop off DD at gymnastics and I still have 1-2 hours before I have to make dinner (and my older kids are here but don't need me -- they're 17 and 20). Sometimes, I have to run errands or do things around the house, but when I don't, I force myself to just sit and either read or watch TV -- which seems so decadent! At those times, occasionally I will drift off for a little while.

This is a really interesting topic.

I'm another one who can't nap. If I do, I wake up feeling literally very sick - pounding head, foggy, and even sometimes with an upset stomach. It wrecks the rest of my day.

I always thought I was just really strange, so it makes me feel better to hear that at least a few other people report the same thing.

If I'm really sick, then sometimes a nap doesn't make me feel any worse....but under no circumstances can I take a short nap and wake up feeling refreshed!

Love napping, Mary you are my role model because I look forward to unfettered napping once I retire too!

Yes. Another napper here ....

...many years ago I could time my naps too .... in 20 minutes (to the moment) I would wake up ... very handy! LOL! :)

... nowadays I have to be more careful not to overnap and feel worse .... but generally I enjoy slipping into the bed (with a spare cat or two) and napping for about 30 minutes or so ...

I'm another non-napper. I would if I could, but just can't. The second I try, it's like my mind goes into overdrive like I'm trying to fight myself.

I didn't really nap much as a kid either. I remember getting into trouble all the time in the first grade because we had to put our heads down on the desk after lunch and I would fidget the whole time.

The only time I recall taking a nap during the day was when I had oral surgery - but that was drug induced. I remember waking up in a foggy haze, feeling disoriented because the light outside looked different.

No, no naps ever! My brain dictates that if it is daytime or evening then I am active, sleep is only at night. I am happy with that!

So, with all this talk about naps, I'm thinking about places like Italy and Spain where the siesta is commonplace. I was in Italy last year and on one hand, the idea is great but maybe only when you're a local. Not when you're a tourist and suddenly all the stores shut down! From noon to about 3, at least in the area we were in, you could not do a thing...

Another napper here! I love naps. My body seems to know when it is 2:30 PM as, without fail, I get sleepy then. As I still work full time, I always find something to do which involves walking at that time of day. No sitting for me then.

I have been known to come home from work at 4:30 and take a quick 30 minute nap as well. But my favorite is Sunday afternoon, football on TV and a fire burning in the stove with me curled up on the couch.