A 3 year old infographic rises from ashes...
How to nap
31–40 of 137 posts
Re: How to nap
#32I cannot overstate how much power naps have improved my life. I started doing them regularly about seven years ago and have been recommending them to everyone I can since. Napping makes me happier, more alert, and way more productive. A shameless plug: I wrote a post about how I learned to nap here: http://unschooled.org/2011/05/how-i-nap
Can you and other nappers here explain how you are able to find somewhere to nap in a busy office environment (and your car isn't available)? For me, lying on the floor would be far too noisy with hundreds of PCs humming away and I would be at constant risk of being stepped on by my colleagues.
Re: How to nap
#33Has anyone ever used phone apps that purport to wake you up at the right time by using the accelerometer to detect how much you're moving in your sleep? Example: http://www.sleepcycle.com/ I've used this but only for a few times because it requires the phone to be activated all night, which makes it quite warm in the morning. But it seemed to make me less groggy...but I can't tell if that's just confirmation bias...…
I tried using a Wakemate (a dedicated bluetooth wristband that talks to a companion iPhone app) and found it to be pretty close to useless for me -- I move around quite a lot when I sleep, and I found it was consistently waking me up within a minute of the start of the wake period.
That doesn't mean that stuff like this isn't useful for normal people who don't flail around like an animal when they sleep, but an anecdote is an anecdote. I'd also imagine a more sophisticated piece of software might be able to learn your sleep pattern and adjust the sensitivity (i.e. calibrate the threshold based on how much you personally move when you sleep, rather than the hypothetical average person).
(in Wakemate's defense, they have an awesome no-questions-asked 30-day return policy, so I was happily able to return it and get my money back when I wasn't satisfied. They were a true pleasure to deal with.)
Re: How to nap
#34I love naps.
Re: How to nap
#35It's interesting to note the immediate difference between a short nap (less than 45 mins) and one longer. I've never heard the pre nap coffee suggestions! I take naps frequently and hate when I over sleep or wake up from one longer than an hour and a half due to the groggy/grumpy side effects. Really interesting and insightful piece!
> hate when I over sleep Try this - immediately before closing your eyes say to yourself "I need to wake up in 15 minutes". In exactly 15 minutes you will feel a subtle mental nudge that you need to act upon and open your eyes. You can as easily ignore it, in which case you will go right back to sleep. YMMV, of course, but it works for many people and it is seriously amazing.
The body's own clock is amazing. I've done this to wake myself up in the mornings successfully too!
I do it like this: when laying in bed right before falling asleep I imagine a flip-card clock and the whole thing is spinning, just spinning, then I imagine it stopping suddenly on the time that I want to wakeup. The really cool part is when you wake up at exactly that time the next morning with NO alarm clocks!
Re: How to nap
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ditto. For me, the 20 minute investment in a post-lunch nap pays back manyfold in increased productivity (to say nothing of health and general well-being) for the rest of the day. Finding a place to nap in an office an environment can be tricky, but if you start thinking of your nap as an important work tool and not an embarrassing indulgence, you can usually find a way to make it work. Drop a few bucks on a good pil…
Two tricks, both of which depend on your situation CAR: I used to go to my car and take a nap. Kick the seat back, eye cover, maybe ear plugs and put the alarm on vibrate and in my shirt pocket. Depending on someones situation and their proximity to their vehicle, if they drive.. It could be good. YOGA MAT: Everyone likes being hip and yogic. Buy a yoga mat. By tying yoga mats to napping it seems all so, much, more o…
I just have an incredibly hard time imagining how I could nap on a yoga mat in my cubile without everyone else stopping to watch it like a circus, and my manger wanting to discuss why I am literally sleeping on the job.
Re: How to nap
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just feels. Definitely worse, it puts me off-beat for the rest of the day and I always feel like I suddenly desperately need a shower.
Yeah, I'm not sure where the sensation of needing to shower comes from...perhaps from sweat?
Not the OP, but my experience is similar. I shower in the mornings, so I think for me it's more of an association of "wake up = shower"
Re: How to nap
#38Sadly, here in Brazil when I tell someone that I need a nap in the afternoon to be really productive almost everyone says "You are lazy" or something like that. I have worked in a single company that I had some time to take a 15-20 minutes nap in the afternoon and the boost in my productivity was simply outstanding.
Believe me, it's not just Brazil!
Not even in Spain or Portugal? My last hope...
Re: How to nap
#39Twenty minute naps leave me in a horrid state of disarray. It takes me about an hour to recover from the grogginess, so I tend to stay as far away from them as possible. I've experimented with time and location variations, but never with any success. It makes me sad, because I know tons of people who work naps into their day with fantastic results.
Re: How to nap
#40I cannot overstate how much power naps have improved my life. I started doing them regularly about seven years ago and have been recommending them to everyone I can since. Napping makes me happier, more alert, and way more productive. A shameless plug: I wrote a post about how I learned to nap here: http://unschooled.org/2011/05/how-i-nap
Can you and other nappers here explain how you are able to find somewhere to nap in a busy office environment (and your car isn't available)? For me, lying on the floor would be far too noisy with hundreds of PCs humming away and I would be at constant risk of being stepped on by my colleagues.
I usually fold my arms on the desk and sleep with my head down, you have to be careful to make sure you let enough oxygen through and also to not cut circulation from your arm for too long. If I sleep for too long this way my arms become numb, but sometimes I'm so tired I just don't care =)