I’m a good napper. You might even say a great napper. My cottage naps are the stuff of legend. I can put myself to sleep very easily and wake up on cue by thinking about the time I need my internal “alarm” to go off before passing out. A 15 minute nap before a long drive is probably my most “beneficial” use of this talent. I can really power through long drives this way and have done 5 hours after an 8 hour surf day with salt still stinging my eyes..
Men’s Journal has a good piece about the benefits of the nap and some tips on becoming an expert napper yourself.
“Here’s how the power nap works: Sleep comes in five stages that recur cyclically throughout a typical night, and a power nap seeks to include just the first two of them. The initial stage features the sinking into sleep as electrical brain activity, eye and jaw-muscle movement, and respiration slow. The second is a light but restful sleep in which the body gets ready — lowering temperature, relaxing muscles further — for the entry into the deep and dreamless “slow-wave sleep,” or SWS, that occurs in stages three and four. Stage five, of course, is REM, when the eyes twitch and dreaming becomes intense.”
Nice! A Kramer-esque mental alarm for naps. I have a mental alarm too but it only works for full nights.
I LIVE for the Saturday afternoon nap on the couch in front of the TV. Golf rules for falling asleep to. Waking up from the Saturday afternoon nap is my favourite feeling in the world.
i need a lesson. it never ceases to amaze me with what speed u can pass out. like in mid-sentence and you\’re zzzzz. i need to acquire that skill. not being a man, the article doesn\’t apply…any tips?