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Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

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Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#61

Post by hanley »

DaniFong wrote: post #21
virtuabhi wrote: post #6

I have read this before. I do not understand how you can sleep for 20 minutes. It takes more than 15 minutes just to fall asleep.

Read this carefully: I used to think this way as well. This thinking lead me to the exact wrong strategy for naps. There are many stages of sleep; stage 1 through 4, and REM sleep. These, it is hypothesized, have distinct physiological functions. Most importantly for this discussion, waking up out of each have very different effects. Waking from stage 1 sleep makes you feel immediately refreshed, and people perform b…

I always had difficulty finding the correct amount of time to nap for where I would wake up feeling refreshed and not drowsy, until I read about Dali napping with a spoon in his hand. The idea is that you hold the spoon off the bed/couch so that as soon as you start to drop past stage 2, your hand releases the spoon, it falls to the floor and wakes you up.

I now do this combined with a caffeine nap (green tea) and it works perfectly. There's a point where I deep in my conscious I realize I'm dropping the item. As it hits the floor my eyes open, and I feel refreshed almost immediately afterwards. The time for me is about 25-27 minutes from laying down to the drop.

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#62

Post by Afforess »

Swizec wrote: post #50
ArcticCelt wrote: post #39

I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours. When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

Yes. If you lay still with your eyes closed and make sure your phone and internet stay quiet, you will fall asleep in 10 minutes or so. That then leaves enough to get 10 minutes or so of sleep and get back up 20 minutes after starting your nap. Much longer than that and you risk not getting up for another few hours. Much less than that and you won't get any rest. And yes, this works perfectly well even without fallin…

Just lay still for 20 minutes and let your mind wander without distractions

Just. I've never been able to do that. I'm always thinking, even when I am exhausted. (Usually then, about how exhausted I am.)

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#63

Post by victormg »

matwood wrote: post #43
ArcticCelt wrote: post #39

I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours. When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

I can't nap, but just laying down for 20 minutes with my eyes closed in a quiet room gives me a huge energy boost.

Same here,somebody have an explanation?

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#66

Post by k__ »

ArcticCelt wrote: post #39

I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours. When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

Afaik it's an illusion.

When I'm not sleeping alone, the other people tell me I'm snoring after 10min lying around. But I cant remember falling asleep, snoring OR waking up. Just That I had my eyes closed and tried to sleep.

So I guess, I cant check for my self that I'm asleep...

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#67

Post by crb3 »

Widow wrote: post #49
crb3 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two techniques from my experience: - 'walk back' in your mind to center yourself away from forebrain activity and visual activity (this is a visualization technique) - cover your back with something insulated and/or warm. The less your back is staying tensed against chill air, the more physically relaxed you can be. I have a Thinsulate-filled sleeping bag that I use like a throw for this as it reflects body heat bett…

I noticed this when I started sleeping with my back against a body pillow. I wonder if it has anything to do with wanting to sleep with pressure around our bodies?

That's not universal. I've read that infants / small children tend to like sleeping while wrapped / confined. This adult: not so much. (Part of that is probably the Minuteman attitude I've adopted since becoming a single parent a couple of decades back. Anything which interfered with my ability to quickly respond to / protect my kids had to go.)

I do think it's the warmth. Part of our maintaining constant muscular tension is maintaining body heat. While we do seem to want to chill down slightly for sleep -- my observation, based on how often I'd nap on the bus and awaken sweaty, and I seem to recall reading something about that -- IME that tension does noticeably interfere with quickly getting to sleep.

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#68

Post by derekp7 »

electromagnetic wrote: post #41
ArcticCelt wrote: post #39

I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours. When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

Ditto this. My wife can nap no problem. I might nap every couple months, and its basically a disrupted sleep and not a nap. I wake up feeling terrible; groggy, mild headache, irritable. I'd have been better off not napping as it inevitably comes when I've got so much to do and no energy and that "if I have a quick nap I'll feel refreshed and be ready to work!" Nope!

I'm the same way -- every once in a while I'll fall asleep on a weekend around mid afternoon, and sometimes wake up 4 hours later. Then I really feel like yuck for another hour. And I can't fall asleep easily that night either (usually I don't have a problem falling asleep, just not getting interrupted in the middle by the dog wanting to get let out).

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#69

Post by click170 »

ArcticCelt wrote: post #39

I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours. When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

You could try not watching TV, using a laptop, or reading in bed.

For me, when I stopped watching TV and doing things on my laptop from my bed, I very quickly noticed an improvement in how quickly I fell asleep.

Another big one is exercise. I notice that when I exercise I have a much easier time falling asleep than on days that I don't, I now try to exercise every day.

I also got older over the past few years, which in and of itself could explain things, so, I suggest experimenting to find what works best for you.

Edit: typo.

Re: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

#70

Post by djur »

k__ wrote: post #66
ArcticCelt wrote: post #39

I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours. When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

Afaik it's an illusion. When I'm not sleeping alone, the other people tell me I'm snoring after 10min lying around. But I cant remember falling asleep, snoring OR waking up. Just That I had my eyes closed and tried to sleep. So I guess, I cant check for my self that I'm asleep...

I've had the same experience when sleep-deprived (which is really the only condition in which I can nap). I'll grab a couch at work and recline and close my eyes. What follows is perceived as a relatively brief period -- twenty minutes or so -- of being somewhat abstracted from reality, with my mind operating in that semi-dreamlike state you sometimes get when waking up slowly. Then I'll open my eyes, slightly fuzzy but less tired, and go back to my desk to find that 60-90 minutes have passed. (This is almost always in the context of work-related sleep deprivation, like being in a crunch on a project or up late because of a crisis, so I've never gotten any guff over it; in any case, it happens very rarely.)

What's interesting is that I definitely feel like I'm perceiving the world with some continuity during that time -- I'll hear coworkers' conversations, people walking around, etc. -- but apparently I miss things like people coming up and checking if I'm awake, or even the time someone laid my hoodie over me as an improvised blanket.

If I sleep any longer than 90 minutes or so, I just perceive it the same way I do sleeping at night.

The brain is a strange contraption, isn't it?

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