Do you do power naps?
 

I've found power naps work really well on long car journeys... it's like 5 minutes of rest, 10-15 minutes of mild hallucinations (similar to when I'm falling asleep in a bed - sometimes wild ideas pop into my head and I get up to record them) then suddenly I'm fully awake and feeling amazingly refreshed.

I was on a long car trip an hour from home and wasn't confident I could make it safely. A 20 minute power nap later and I was raring to go, so much that I ended up taking the (very) long way home which took about 4 hours instead of 1.

So... can this be applied to a home/office situation? I would love to spend 20 minutes on an afternoon pseudo-siesta and feel refreshed, rather than sleep for 3-4 hours and wake up feeling like crap...

Anyone doing this?

I always worry if i powernap at work, i'll be out for the count and get my ass canned. LOL!

Cause of the heat I don't sleep well.so they help

All my naps, become sleeps :(

I have done It but usually those 20min's become 1-2 hours

I think in the long drive thing, alot of it is eye to brain fatigue, like if you drive for 12 hours you are completely exhausted, way more than if you just sat and watched tv for 12 hours, not sure why that is, I've found the 15 minute nap while driving resets your eyes so you can keep them open and continue on somewhat refreshed

Powernaps are great but you have to get your body adjusted to it.

The best is what's called a sleep diet. I've never attempted it but apparently once you get to day 10 you get all this energy and it's better.
What you do is sleep for 20 minutes every 4 hours. But you CAN'T break this pattern once you start. That way you're getting 2 hours of sleep per day. It's really difficult and many people give up before making it to day 10. Day 4 is when it get's really hard I think. It's been researched by NASA and its healthy but don't take my word for it. I'm hoping to try it. Maybe some time this month.

Powernaps are fantastic if you're feeling a bit 4 o'clockish, I find. But don't sleep too long or you'll get up even more tired. If you stick to 25 minutes or less, then you wake up ready to rock n roll! :)

:2 cents:

I read a blog a few years ago about a guy who persisted and managed to achieve this... although I think it was 30 per 6 hours. Sounds interesting but if you have to interact with family or even just the outside world I think it's going to cause some issues... what if you're scheduled to go to an event that starts 3 hours after your last sleep?

Do you mean you use an alarm to wake up? The point of my OP is that I don't need the alarm when I take a "nap" in the car (although I do usually set it about 30 mins forward, just in case)

Sometimes when I'm really tired dozing off on the couch peps me up again, which I guess is a power nap, but I can't pull that off consistently. Maybe I need to go buy a car seat from the local wreckers. :1orglaugh

Been doing it for years now. Works wonders when you do 16 hr + every day. But no more than 20 Min or else you feel bad. But once you get into the habit it is hard to break.

I have tried to power nap so many times from 15 minutes to an hour and it never works for me. Always makes me feel more tired and crappy.

I love power naps, but never more than 20-25 minutes...otherwise, you fall into deeper REM sleep and it makes you even more tired when you wake up....

I sleep for a 30-60 minutes in the middle of the day, almost every day im not out at customers.

I def. indulge in naps. Trick is (at least for me) - never more than 1 hour.

I meditate twice a day for 20 minutes each time...

I can't nap during the day. I'll never get up.

im like the old fuckers i laughed at as a child :(:1orglaugh sleep my ass off :helpme

I take 1-3 naps a day, but I am pregnant.

Normally I take a nice hour nap every couple days though, it feels great. I put an eye mask on to get the best rest.

Yeah, I set the alarm on my cell phone and put it on the table beside me. :)

i love naps

i found that 20 min or 2 hours are the 2 time frames that work for naps for me
otherwise i feel groggy and not much use to anyone

I'm still not sure how to reliably limit the duration of a nap, since I can't always easily get to sleep. I was stumbling around before and feeling extremely tired, but once I was in bed I had a zillion thoughts and ideas racing around my head. It probably took 20-25 mins before I even started drifting off. I wonder if there's a device that can detect you've nodded off and then wake the person up X minutes later? :D

naps = sleep for me... give me 10-15 min to lay down anywhere i can fall asleep... cars, planes, boats, outside , floor I aint picky... parents always loved that about me when i was a baby...

power naps are easy to do when you're really tired. On a normal day it would probably take me 20 mins just to fall asleep.