[…] Naps: Endagered species in modern life? | 43 Folders A good nap is one of life’s great pleasures, and the ability to nap is the sign of a well-balanced life. When we nap we snatch back control of our day from a mechanized, clock-driven society. We set aside the urgency imposed on us by the external world and get in touch with an internal rhythm that is millions of years old…. […]

@Becky:

Pzizz is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful Mac application I’ve ever known in my life.

Very nice article. I have to differ with the author’s “ideal” nap spot, however. If we are talking “ideal” then its a hammock in a shady spot between two tree’s and swinging in the breeze. My last good nap turned into three year dream…. I woke to find myself in an extremely cranky culture and THAT left me discombobulated for months afterwards.

I use Meditation Timer 1.1.1 (mac) to bring me back to the world of illusion.

Now back to work

Merlin -

I’m of the headachey/discombobulated non-napping crowd, too. Question though… With the disclaimer that my grandma was a paranoid schizophrenic, don’t you find it ODD that everyone who uses Pzizz absolutely (SUBLIMINAL), unfailingly (MESSAGES), thinks it’s the most wonderful (ANYONE?) thing they’ve ever done?

Curious, Beck

I get one punk of a headache when I take a nap! I find that if I grab a quick cup-o-joe right before I close my eyes it takes the edge off when I wake up (being that it takes few minutes for the buzz to kick in).

How long do you actually sleep when you nap? I’ve never been able to nap as it leaves me discombobulated for hours. Do I need to set a clock?

I enjoy a good nap every now and again — typically on the weekends — but I’ll be darned if I’m going to stop after 20 minutes. I like a good one-hour or 90-minute nap :)

I’m with Bryan up there. A quickie just doesn’t do it for me. But give me an hour or two, and I can go ‘till 2AM.

I’m one who can take it either way. About 3 times a week, I need a twenty minute nap in the mid-afternoon. About once a week, usually on the weekend, I take an hour nap in the afternoon. Usually this is at home watching football. But generally, 3 times a week I don’t need a nap at all.

It just depends on how the day has gone thus far and whether I need a chance to relax and “mind reboot” or not (nice phrase, btw).

Any of you aware of an app that does this in Windows?

The pzizz software is available for both Mac OS X and Windows, actually.

http://www.pzizz.com/software_intro.asp

A good nap is one of life’s great pleasures — very good, i agree. i often snap in the daytime, but it don’t disturb my work.

by the way, your site design is really very beautiful. I like it.

Caution: self-referential link coming up.

I started a long response in the comments here, and then realized that I should just go ahead and post it on my blog. But I can’t do that fancy linkback thing you kids do, so I thought I’d contribute to the conversation by linking to it here. I’m so gauche.

http://12easypieces.com/2006/11/01/on-napping

I’m a firm believer in naps being as good as a change (being as good as a rest), to the point that I’ve started to force the guys who work for me (I’m a humanitarian disaster-response coordinator) to take them at about 4pm. That way I can make them work 7am-midnight, 7 days a week for months and months and never once feel like maybe I should let them have a day off. (You can probably tell that I’m not that much of a humanitarian with my own people)

The ‘headache-y nonsense’ vs. ‘best idea in the world’ argument can probably be easily settled: as a new routine, it definitely does take some getting used to, but it gets more effective, and you start to need less and less for the same effect the more regularly that you do it. I used to need about 90mins or I would feel headache-y, but now I get 25mins every day, using Pzizz (natch) and can kick rrr for a long, long time.

As for being embarrassed about being asleep - I’ve always been jealous of old people who can just doze the afternoon away with their own ‘mind like water’: I always thought it was a wonderful thing and one of the main reasons that I am really, REALLY looking forward to being an old man. That, and the free license that old people have to dole out random vitriol at random young people. Personally, I can’t wait.

Bah, kids these days… ;0)

How nice to wake up from 40 winks and be confronted with this article. I have to agree with all..I just get a great extra boost from the snooze. Pzizz looks wonderful, will check it out…

Funny that. I just closed my eyes for 10 mins and commented to my officemate that it was the first nap I’d let myself take at work since 2002.

This, from a champion of falling asleep right under the professor’s nose. Or while performing as a subject in a cognitive-science department experiment. When the body needs sleep it takes it. Speaking of polyphasic sleep, during exam times I’d sleep for 4 hours at night and 2 hours in late afternoon. It sucked but it kind of worked.

I sure wish I’d slept better in high school and college. I’m not going to repeat that mistake with my kids. They’ll see me nap.

Napping is all well and good, but for most people it’s simply not feasible. I can’t just leave my office for an extra half-hour after lunch to take a nap, nor do I have a place TO nap - my car? It’s too damn cold for that. Under my desk? Unfortunately, that faces my boss’ office.

I’d love to have a nap in the mid-afternoon, but it’s just not a realistic possibility.

“After a few minutes you gradually become aware again of the bed, the room.”

I’m literally in awe of anyone who can fall asleep and then regain consciousness within a few minutes. Once I’m out, it’s at least 90 minutes before I’m back awake. Oh, how I love a nap, but how dangerous those things are…

@Phil,

Get thee to the comfy chair at your local coffee shop.

Lunch? You can bring healthy snacks (carrot sticks, celery, apple slices) to eat throughout the day, thereby lessening a need for a large, time-consuming lunch.

For me, there’s a big difference between napping and sleeping. Sleeping’s deep and prolonged. Napping is dozing - it’s just below the level of conciousness - and is brief, forty minutes max. I hate sleeping during the day because I wake up all cranky and boboed and it takes me hours to recover. I love napping because I wake up happy and mellow and relaxed. I have a highly irregular schedule, so I just nap whenever it occurs to me and it’s practical to do so, but my best naps are around either 10 am or 2 pm, and in my own bed.

It took me a while to settle into a (way? practice? routine?) that works for me. I’m sure there’s a lot of individual variation. I don’t use any special equipment, and ambient light and sound are unimportant. I just lie down (always on my back, unlike sleep, when I’m always on my side), close my eyes, and let my mind wander. I’m aware of when I start to drift off, and I enjoy that in-between state before I relinquish conciousness. Sometimes I’m only out for a minute or two, but the duration always feels just right.

[…] The modern world killed off the nap [Toronto Star via 43 Folders] […]

I am also a pzizz owner that is questioning my decision to purchase it. Those of you who delcare it to be the greatest thing ever, any tricks? I feel like the key part of pzizz for me is the beeping at the end so that I wake up, but I cannot fall asleep for a good 20 minutes, but I can’t afford to take much more than a 30 minute nap so I get about 10 minutes or so in. But that’s only when I’m ALREADY tired. When I’m not I can’t fall asleep at all. When I was reading up before buying it, I had this illusion of being able to sleep within 5 minutes of this thing being on. Am I just asking too much from the software?

Okay, I will admit, however, that even the 10 minutes that I get sometimes does leave me noticeably refreshed when the day moves into late afternoon/evening. But I have dreams of a solid 20-30 minutes of napping and the wonders that would do.

“Any of you aware of an app that does this in Windows?”

Never thought I’d see the day people would ask this wipes away a single tear

I like naps when needed… rare but when my body indicate it wants one…I like to oblige my self to one. Usually a few minutes does the job but sometimes I need a hour or two… It helps me enjoy life…so why not.

@korinthe—

“from a champion of falling asleep right under the professor’s nose” Do you actually think that none them noticed? Just because I don’t say something to the students falling asleep in class doesn’t mean I don’t notice. My favorite ones are the head-jerkers who are trying to keep themselves awake, but are losing the battle. Sometimes I talk a little quieter, or move to the other side of the room so I can let them fall fully asleep. Then I walk back across the room, rise my lecture to a crescendo, and bang the lectern with a triumphant thwack. Because I don’t stop and never indicate it to any of the other students, the sleeper thinks he got away with something. But he also wonders what he missed that ended with a triumphant whack. The fear of missing another major point usually keeps him on his toes for a class or two.

We notice. We always notice. Sometimes, we just don’t care.

Pzizz owns! I loaded 20 different sleep cycles and about 40 different nap cycles on my iPod mini that’s permanently attached to the apple Hi-Fi in my bedroom so now I just turn of the lights and pick a track and I’m out inside 10 minutes. I can’t live without it now. Vive La Nappy Time!

This is why I bought the “bring back naptime” shirt from threadless. =)

I love naps but often sleep to long so I started using a kitchen timer. It’s much easier than setting an alarm and more fool proof. Just set it and fall asleep worry free.

[…] I just read an interesting NPR article (via Jumping Monkeys) about kids energy levels and their sluggish parents. I admit I need my coffee in the morning or I am out of sorts, sluggish, and generally grumpy. But Bella and Gilli are almost always awake before I am, playing happily (if a little noisily) in their room. It’s funny though, that the article seems to use an 18 year old as the example of energy. I don’t remember if I had boundless energy as a little child, but I know I had already started to slow down by the time I was 18. Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. Mmmm, sleep. The one thing I can never seem to get enough of. By the time the week is over I am exhausted, but the girls are still going strong. Maybe it’s because they get to take naps during the day? Although that’s pretty much only Gill, as Bella misses naps during the week since she goes to school and tends to ignore them on the weekend. I miss naps, but Bella doesn’t seem to. ^_^ […]

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A nap tip for the folks who get blurry after a nap: don’t nap in your bed. I got this from my friend Matt, a champion napper. Nap on the couch, in a chair, a hammock, on the lawn, or on the floor. You won’t sleep as deeply or as long (i.e., you’ll actually nap), and you’re more likely to feel refreshed afterwards instead of ruined. Works for me. Bonus: you get less midday bedhead.