I often do on the weekends. (Can't do it during the week, as much as I would like to some days!) I seem to have a knack for falling asleep on the sofa while trying to read after a weekend lunch, and I usually just go with it and allow myself to enjoy the experience. I don't ever nap very long; certainly not longer than 45 minutes at a time. I usually wake up feeling refreshed (once I get going again), but on the rare occasion a nap can actually kinda wipe me out for the rest of the day. But that's not the norm.

Anyway, I think that naps are a very good thing indeed, and now that I'm thinking of them, I'll wish I could be taking one today!

Yes if I'm lucky. But it has to be at a certain time, or else I'll get up more tired than I was and in a bad mood. Not refreshed at all. Maybe has to do something with sunset, because all my childhood my Mom told me one should never take naps when it's sunset(??). But I did notice that if I'm falling asleep too late, it's already a botched up nap-it means it'd be smarter to wait a bit and go to bed early.

I'm sorry for being dense, but what is IF?

One of my few life skills is the ability to take an exactly 20-minute nap. I look at the clock, say to myself “Self, you have 20 minutes” and voilà! 20 minutes later I’m refreshed. I don’t nap often but if I think I can use a reset, it’s heavenly to take that 20 minutes to rest.

A more useful life skill would be the ability to sleep on planes, but that skill I’m lacking. Since I have more opportunities to nap than I have to sleep on planes, I suppose that helped that skill developed. Solution: more trips to Europe to work on it.

I am a napper, but not consistently so. Even when I worked, I would have my secretary hold my calls and bar the door so I could get a 20 minute snooze in after lunch. I have read that if you nap, it should be less than 40 minutes or greater than 2 hours. Something to do with REM sleep.

bbstx I also have heard something about how long a nap should be in order to be refresing, onlyI remember it as something to do with odd number vse even number(again, no idea whether I remember it correctly)..and yes, was something to do with REM.

One thing for sure-nap can be great or can make one feel really sluggish

I know my Mom pulled herself through full time work and college by taking 20 min naps in the library. She swears by it. I can't do that, I usually either can fall asleep, or I can't.

Sometimes if I haven't slept well the night before. I generally don't sleep that well but usually deal with that by sleeping later in the morning (now that I'm retired) rather than napping. If I haven't slept well during the night and have to get up early then I almost always end up taking a nap around 3pm, probably for an hour.

I don't take a nap. I've always had trouble sleeping so I tough it out until bedtime. I have accidentally dozed off for about 10 mins, very seldomly, and it does make me more energized. I know from the past if I take a real nap in the middle of the day, I am more tired the rest of the day.

That's me Ollie! I actually feel worse instead of better. But I think I am a person who doesn't require alot of sleep. I am pretty much getting my 8 hours each night. I think that must be enough for me. I used to take a sunday afternoon nap but stopped. That was during the time I was working and helping out my parents/grandmother, so I probably needed it then. BB, that is what my husband does sometimes. He will come in, sleep about 30 minutes and he's back at it.

April - IF is intermittent fasting. Someone brought it up here on the board and since I never eat soon after getting up (usually much later), I decided to try it. I eat between the hours of 11:00 am and 7:00 pm. I was pretty much already doing that but now I'm more intentional about it. Maybe it's in my head but I do seem to have a bit more energy.

Oh my gosh...I love naps!! My mom always made us have quiet time for about an hour each afternoon. She even had me rest after school each day for 1/2 hour or so.

The only problem with this is that my body is conditioned now to pass out for 1/2 hour or so every afternoon! 😂 I learned early on in college to schedule my classes in the morning. I had to take biology at 2:00pm, and OMG...you could look at my notes and see where I lost consciousness. 😂 There’d be words, then there’d be this sort of line...

It was hard when I was working...I drank a LOT of coffee and Diet Coke in the afternoon. When my babies came along, we all napped together! You didn’t need to tell me twice to “sleep when the baby sleeps.” Passing out on the sofa with my toddler while my infant snoozed in her bassinet was a regular occurrence! Bliss.

Now I sometimes still grab a quick nap...I get up really early to run and otherwise I’d be in bed at 9pm. My nap allows me to go to bed at the same time as dh.

I nap on weekends sometimes if I feel like it and don't have anything else I want or need to be doing. I do have to be careful how long and how late I nap or it will impact my ability to fall asleep. But I'm also lucky to rarely have trouble sleeping unless I'm really stressed out.

You bet I do -- for 5 to 20 minutes whenever I feel the urge. In fact, I feel one coming on now.

I try! Everyday

I try! Everyday

Often. Mid afternoon when the house is quiet. I really only need about 5 minutes, in a comfy chair with my feet up.

No, I feel worse if I do. Sounds strange but I avoid one at all costs. From what I've read they're good for you. My Mother and Grandmother are and were nap takers every afternoon without fail.

Nope, although I’d sleep all day and night if I could. I love sleep. However, if I sleep during the day I have trouble sleeping at night. If I fall into a really deep sleep during the day, I wake up all groggy and disoriented and can’t do another thing all day.

I was reading something about twenty minute power naps today and how good they are for you. I’ll have to try it. I’ll have to learn that internal alarm clock trick!

I can also take a 20 minute nap and dream during the nap and wake up feeling great!

I love to lie down in the afternoon and read, and occasionally I'll drift off-have to say it's one of the lovely bonuses of being retired, I can do it much more often now!

This is a timely thread as I recently read this very amusing "Ode to Naps."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/01/an-ode-to-naps/617270/

"With the nap, it can go either way.

"It can succeed, which is to say it can perform its function of refreshment and revival. Twenty minutes or so of light, untroubled sleep, just when you need it. After lunch, perhaps; nature gently makes the suggestion. So you settle; you sink. But not too far. A delicious shallowness. You open your eyes. You’re awake again—in a state of lamblike innocence, blinking limpidly and contentedly. The prickle of health is on your skin. Ah, it feels so good. What a great idea that was, to take a nap.

"Or it can fail. You go down, you get swallowed. Sweating, fidgeting, moaning. After a slow-motion, deep-sea struggle, you flounder to wakefulness. You’re up, sort of. But you’ve spent too long in the shaggy embrace of Morpheus; now his stagnant chemicals are in your blood. You’ve aged, visibly. Your face looks like a sat-on bagel. Your last five meals are burning black smoke in your system. You blunder into the kitchen, craving sugar. The afternoon ahead of you is gray with torpor. Consciousness is a trial. Taking a nap was the worst idea in the world."

Sat-on bagel, ha!

That internal alarm thing it's hard to turn off though.

I can feel it even when I know I should just be relaxin, all I can think about is what I need to do next and how much time it will take and how much time I have left to relax.

I can also stay up all night when I have to get up early because I'm so wired about getting up on time.

I think I mentioned this before, but five years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD, the Inattentive Type and if it wasn't for super strong black coffee I'd still be asleep.

My sleep pattern has been messed up since my 20s because that's when I came down with Restless Leg Syndrome which is common in those with ADHD.

The RLS med I take before I go to bed makes me sleep like a baby and wake up with no hangover.

With Covid and self-isolation along with DH working from home, I'll take a nap after lunch, maybe 30 min tops. Knowing DH is in the other room to "babysit" me and take care of the dogs, I finally get a restful nap. When he was working outside the home and I'd be alone all day with the kids in school, I had to stop taking naps because I was having freakish nightmares.

One of the positives of self-isolating is I can stay up all night long if I want because I can't go anywhere and no one is coming over to visit. It's truly fun. Coffee is my friend.

Even with ADHD medication I can still sleep. See, if you have ADHD you won't get the super energy like people get when they don't have ADHD. You've heard of "soccer moms?"

Finding out there are meds for RLS and that I'm ADHD has been a saving grace for getting good sleep.

Of course it doesn't always stop me from getting a thought in my head while trying to fall asleep, then going to the LR to tell DH while he looks at me like I'm crazy. LOL!!

It does explain my whole life though.

I wanted to add that I was never a disciplinary problem in school, but I did talk a lot and somehow ended up being "teacher's pet" throughout high school. Humor goes a long way. :)

I take naps for recreation usually. Those are long. Occasionally I’ll take a restorative nap if I’m exhausted and those are often quite short.

Not a napper. I do wish I could be one as lately I seem to get tired earlier than I would like. Unfortunately after a nap I feel cranky and tired the rest of the day.

Jill I think it must mess up our sleep cycle or something.

Oakley, I am shocked you have adhd! I thought with that a person had trouble paying attention. You often mention “going down a rabbit hole” online and playing games. Your meds must be doing the trick!

i am surprised so many nap, but if it works for you, go for it!! Thanks for playing along.

I try to nap. My sleep patterns are rather erratic and sometimes a nap does help. Unfortunately, even when needed, I do not often fall asleep. However, I will still lock myself in my room for 2 hours and hide from the world (kids). Even if I am unable to sleep, the distance and uninterrupted time is restorative.

I do a couple of times a week, but have never been able to “turn on” the 20-minute power nap mode. When I nap, I’m out for 1-2 hours! DH, on the other hand, is awesomely great at power naps.

I cannot nap at all unless I'm ill. If I feel like I need a nap, I better have a good 3-4 hours before I have to wake up - otherwise, I feel like I've got a terrible hangover (I remember those from my youth). Never feel refreshed by naps, just groggy and foggy headed.

I don't have any trouble sleeping at night unless I go to bed too early. If I do, I awaken after 3 or 4 hours, my body thinking it has had a "nap" and I will be awake for hours trying to go back to sleep. So I stay up, usually until 1 or 2 and sleep in until 8 or 9.

Similar to Olychick, I only seem to be able to nap if I'm ill - or traveling on a plane, for some reason. I think it must be the hum of the engines. When I was little, I would often get really sleepy sitting in the back of the schoolbus, probably for the same reason. Haven't been on a bus in years tho, and not in the back either.

I wish I could nap sometimes! Especially when I've had a bad night's sleep.

Naps always make me feel worse, not better. A cup of tea does the trick in the afternoons.

These pictures are daily lol

I love my naps. I usually nap for 2 hours and it is the best sleep I get. Frankly I think it is lack of activity! Going to the grocery store once a week just doesn’t cut it. From March until October I am in the garden every day all day and come in for short breaks from the heat. I don’t nap too much during this time.

Never. I sleep in bed, at night.

I can’t sleep on a plane or in a car or on a train. Not even on a red eye or on a flight to Europe. Haven’t been to Asia so I don’t know if that would work.

If I am napping, I am sick.

Tina, not paying attention means not being focused, and that's me. For kids it's called daydreaming/not paying attention.

You've read funny stuff about when we clean house we make a huge mess instead? That's me, with meds or no meds. I'm better now because I can focus longer and get a task done before I begin another.

I took this picture a long time ago, and I may have posted it. It was before I was diagnosed and all I was doing was cleaning the kitchen and then decided to organize, or redecorate, or paint a picture. You get the idea. LOL

I can't take naps unless I want to be up all night. If I were able to take naps I probably take one as described in an article I read. You keep a key in your hand and when the key falls and clanks noisily to the ground you wake up. In other words you really don't sleep. It's supposed to be the point where the creative juices flow the best.

Even though I don't use those juices as much anymore I still enjoy the possibility of creative juices flowing and inspiring me to once again write.

https://www.wellandgood.com/power-nap-key-drop-technique/amp/

Feathers, I often have a cup of tea or something as an afternoon pick me up. I like to take my mornings slow, eat around 11:00 and then really hit it between 12:00 and 4:00.

Denali, that makes perfect sense about inactivity. I have taken on several home projects during the pandemic, and although I rarely "go" anywhere, it keeps me active. But I am so ready for spring!!

Oakley, yes, I know what not paying attention means. It just surprises me you can focus on the computer, etc. Heck, I don't have ADHD, but it doesn't take alot to get me sidetracked from one project to another!!

There are times at work when I get so groggy, that during my lunch hour, I'll go to the car, throw the seat back and catch a few zzzzz's. That is usually enough to remedy things. But if I nap too long, I can't sleep at night.

I do enjoy a good nap though!

Tina, when I say I fell into the rabbit hole on youtube, that means I went there to look something up, then saw a video off to the side and watched it too, which led to another and another. All different topics! I love to do it late at night when I know I won't be interrupted...by me...because I need to do something else. :)

If there's a subject I'm interested in, I can spend a long time reading about it on the web. I'm a Virgo, we're curious by nature.