Thursday Thirteen #457

Zzzzz ... When I started working from home during the covid lockdown, I discovered the joy of an afternoon nap. Instead of eating my lunch – which I could do during meetings with the camera off – I'd spend 45 minutes in bed, in my jammies, under the covers. It's a habit I've continued to this day.

Here are 13 things I've learned about napping from The Mayo Clinic, other sites, and personal experience.

1. Napping helps you relax. At first this seemed counter-intuitive. How can I nap when I'm keyed up? But I've found it helps to, in the words of John Lennon, "turn off my mind, relax and float downstream."

2. Naps can improve performance. As can any short break. When I was working, I found I was more productive after my little snooze, but also lunch.

3. Some people report greater manual dexterity, resulting in fewer workplace accidents, after a nap. 

4. Naps may help with pain. President Kennedy used to schedule short naps in the afternoon because staying seated in long meetings aggravated his bad back, and an afternoon snooze on a very firm mattress provided relief. (It surprised Jackie that he could both fall asleep and wake up so quickly, as she dozed off and rose slowly. She assumed his sleep habits were learned in the Navy.)

5. You may feel groggy immediately after waking from a nap. I personally haven't found this, but people who went to doctor school say it's so.

6. Look in the mirror after your nap. I've found a nap can ruin a good hair day and smear eye makeup.

7. A daytime snooze can make it harder for you to sleep at night. I found this was true back in the olden days, when I would close my eyes "for a minute" after work, wake up two hours later at around 9:00 PM, and find myself still wide awake at 1:00 AM.

8. Limit naps to half an hour. OOPS! That's not me. I'm 45 mins./hour. Maybe I should look at this.

9. Hey! Wait! NASA recommends 40 minute naps for military pilots! Oh well, this is certainly not the first time I've found competing experts disagree online. 

10. Set your alarm clock. "Sorry, I was napping," is not a well-accepted excuse for lateness.

11. Though #10 may be uniquely American. In China, for example, lunch breaks can last up to two hours to accommodate an afternoon nap.  

12. Nap in the early afternoon. I try to nap before 3:00 PM, which certainly isn't early but it works with my schedule. Napping later in the day can interfere with your sleep overnight. (See #7.)

13. Dogs and cats nap throughout the day. Dogs and cats seem pretty happy. Maybe we should be more like dogs and cats.

Where are you on the napping thing? 

 

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

 

 

That's two nights in a row

I woke up scared again this morning. My second nightmare in as many nights. I have a vague memory of it being about Icky Grandma. She was dreadful, but she's also been gone since I was in high school.

I had a good day Saturday. Work is going well. There are dark clouds in the skies above, of course. Aren't there always? I'm worried about the dentist (Wednesday), concerned about Reynaldo's ongoing health problems, aware that the next BIG PROJECT is due July 22 and I don't have any ideas ... But life is never perfect. I'm handling all this.

So what's up? The Cubs had another truly awful game, which brings us closer and closer to the team being disbanded. I am genuinely saddened by this. I've been watching the core players on this roster for six years. I don't want to say goodbye ... and what I want matters not one whit.

And then there was The Three Faces of Eve (1957). In the movie's climax, Eve finally remembers the childhood trauma that caused the fracture of her personality. At her grandmother's wake, six-year-old Eve was forced to kiss her grandmother's corpse goodbye, and it horrified her. Perhaps it upset me more than I thought it did.

I have to be more careful about the media I consume these days. What I watch and read has a bigger impact on me now than it normally would.

Photo by wayhomestudio - www.freepik.com

I think too much about sleep

My sleep schedule is completely messed up! Monday night, I was exhausted as I rode the el home. I thought it was the stress and newness of commuting in cold and snow for the first time this season. (We are setting and breaking November records this week.) I know I'll be used to it again in a day or so. It's just that waiting on the platform in the wind and wet and then scrunching into the seat in my winter coat, surrounded by other down-clad scrunchers, always feels a little extreme at first.

I watched an episode of Blue Bloods* with dinner and then the CNN Town Hall with Joe Biden. I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I went to bed. It was 9:30.

And then at 2:00 AM, I woke up, feeling head-achey.

I promised myself no soda at home because I drink way too much Coke and not enough water. But tonight, I think I was disturbed by a caffeine headache, so I'm downing a can and going back to bed.

I live alone, so I suppose this wacky sleep schedule isn't disrupting anyone and doesn't really matter. Except it just feels unhealthy and unproductive.

I still believe cutting back on caffeine and sugar is a good idea. (You never hear or read about doctors recommending more caffeine and sugar, do you?) But I think I need to move more. I dug out my exercise bands and, beginning Tuesday, I'm going to do reps in the evening after dinner. Maybe I can make that a habit, the way stretching in the morning is. Good for my spine, good for my adrenaline.

And I think I have to avoid naps after work or going to bed before 10:00 or 11:00 (<<
Because I'm becoming preoccupied by sleep and this annoys me.

*That's twice I've watched it now, and I still don't get it's appeal. So I'm officially giving up. I think I prefer my Tom Selleck as Magnum.

How I spent my Saturday

I slept in, shopped, had lunch, and slept some more. I'm tempted to curl up and get back under the covers. It feels both indulgent and wasteful to spend a day this way.

I look forward to days when I have no imperatives: Nowhere I have to go, no one I must call, no chore that positively, absolutely has to be accomplished. It feels luxurious.

But I also feel a little guilty. I was gonna work on my Nanowrimo. Friday night I wrote the beginning of my first-ever murder scene! Lest that sound too ghoulish, it should be noted that I read many murder mysteries and trying my hand at writing the actual dastardly deed is hard! I'm good on most of the forensics -- my villain wants to set the scene to look like an accident -- but I don't know how he's going to dispose of the murder weapon. Then it occurred to me: the story could be told from the prosecutor's POV, and I could just say, "the weapon was never found." Now all I have to do is finish it ... and then write it again for the defense.

Or I could sleep some more.

And I should scrub my bathroom floor, and sort through the papers on my dining room table, and answer some emails for the condo board ...

Or I could sleep some more.