
How to nap: Power napping without sleeping - aditya
http://danieltenner.com/posts/0017-how-to-nap.html
======
wallflower
"The painter Salvador Dali used to employ the following trick to have the best
nap ever:

Hold a coffee spoon (or something else—use your imagination) in your hand.

Sit and relax on a comfy couch or chair with your arm hanging.

When you go into deep sleep (after about 20-30 minutes) your hand will relax
and release the spoon, and the sound of the spoon falling will wake you up.

That is the perfect timing for the best nap ever."

[http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/08/from-the-tips-box-
coffe...](http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/08/from-the-tips-box-coffee-spoon-
naps-grocery-shopping-with-access/)

~~~
gnosis
Dali didn't do that to get "the best nap ever." He did this to sleep just
enough to get some hypnagogic images to use in his art. He never claimed it
improved the quality of the nap itself. And why would it?

------
petercooper
_I will lie in bed, awake, forever thinking and rethinking whatever happens to
be on my mind at the time._

That was me until I got some earphones and went to bed listening to podcasts
every time. Having another voice chattering away (which I can ignore) stops
_my_ inner voice (which I can't ignore) chattering away. Works a treat.

~~~
swombat
You're lucky that you can do that! I've never been able to sleep with a voice
speaking nearby. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep while watching a movie,
ever, for example. Even after a big night out, exhausted, wanting to sleep, I
had to go and switch off the TV to be able to fall asleep.

~~~
petercooper
_You're lucky that you can do that! I've never been able to sleep with a voice
speaking nearby._

Yeah, but the problem is if I don't, I have a voice _in my head_ talking
instead. Literally, my internal voice is "talking" in my head non-stop all day
coming up with ideas, figuring out what to do, complaining about crap, etc.
Perhaps it's a mental illness but I never considered it a problem (yet). :-)

~~~
swombat
Oh, so do I. But if I have the voice outside my head, that also keeps me
awake. The voice inside my head eventually tires out or drifts off, but the
voice coming out of the TV is infatigable. It keeps going all night.

~~~
petercooper
I must just have inherited my dad's skill. My mom used to have entire
conversations with my dad and he'd admit afterwards that he "hadn't been
listening" and couldn't answer a single question about it. I do the same with
my wife.. oops.

~~~
MaysonL
I used to go into work and have the operations staff thank me for solving last
night's problem and have no idea what they were talking about: seems I can
perform perfectly rational problem-solving when answering the telephone in my
sleep.

------
adriand
I frequently evoke envy in people with my ability to nap virtually anywhere -
airports, trains, arms folded across knees with head resting on arms, noisy
living rooms, whatever. (I don't get sleepy at work usually, I have too much
to do).

My method: first, only works if sleepy, or if conscious that sleep is really
necessary. Second, obviously, avoid stimulants pre-nap. Third, get in a
position where your head won't flop around if when you fall asleep. Then, with
eyes closed, imagine your consciousness as a sphere - sort of like the world
of wakeful attention. And then mentally, push that sphere away, distancing
oneself from conscious thought. Finally: wake up 20 minutes later.

I have no idea if that will actually help anyone, but it works for me every
time, with no gadgets, masks, whatever. I think the key is the ability to
mentally distance oneself from conscious attention. If you can let the world
slip away, you will fall asleep.

~~~
gommm
I have a similar system, I imagine myself in an elevator going down and as it
goes down I fall asleep. Before finding this system, I would need at least an
hour to fall asleep.

I think it works by quieting my internal voice and giving an image to the
process of going to sleep.

------
edw519
I taught myself to nap almost anytime anywhere with one little secret: a
Mindfold relaxation mask.

<http://www.mindfold.com/>

The only thing I've ever found that provides total darkness in any condition
with my eyes wide open. Combine it with a neck pillow and the right track on
my ipod and I have a poor man's sensory deprivation chamber. A couple of deep
breaths and the next thing you know, it's 20 minutes later.

~~~
pw
In my experience, a good sleep mask makes napping during the day much easier.
It'll also help with falling asleep at night in rooms that aren't as dark as
they could be. And if earplugs don't bother you, combine them with a sleep
mask, and you'll be able to nap anywhere.

There's a world of difference between $3 drugstore sleep masks and more
expensive ones, in terms of comfort as well as light-blocking ability. I've
been quite happy with Bucky brand sleep masks. They're available on Amazon
along with a number of other masks in the $10-$15 range (including the
Mindfold).

------
loup-vaillant
Before this article does collateral damage:
<http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm>

Acording to this, polyphasic sleep is a good technique when you can't afford
to sleep much. Good in some extreme survival situations, like solo sailing.
However, it is unnatural, and still leaves you in a sleep deprived state. Not
good for everyday life. Even worse if you have to be creative.

One single nap just after lunch, however, is natural and good.

~~~
zyfo
Rebuttal to aforementioned article:
[http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-
on-p...](http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-on-
polyphasic-sleep/)

~~~
billswift
Also here's a 5-1/2 month trial of polyphasic sleep -
<http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/> . This is the
first entry, but he went back and added links to all of his posts about
polyphasic. I am trying it, or attempting to - I am having trouble getting to
sleep quickly enough, then having trouble getting up and not over-sleeping.

------
aphyr
Did anyone else try the pzizz example tracks after reading this? I was
suprised at how quickly I started sinking into wooziness! $40 is kind of a lot
for napping software, but I may have to check out some of the free binaural
beat apps.

~~~
swombat
Back in the days, you could download the sample tracks. I'm sure with a bit of
rummaging around the HTML, that's still possible - those are just standard
Flash mp3 players, I think.

I actually stayed on the sample tracks for about a week when I started. By the
10th time you listen to the same track, though, it gets _really_ tedious.

Btw, you have to listen to them with earphones to get the proper effect (which
you probably did, but worth noting).

~~~
barrkel
[http://www.pzizz.com/wp-
content/uploads/audio/Default%20Slee...](http://www.pzizz.com/wp-
content/uploads/audio/Default%20Sleep%2001.mp3)

~~~
swombat
The energizer one was the one I used for napping, rather than the sleep one,
fyi.

~~~
barrkel
OK then:

[http://www.pzizz.com/wp-
content/uploads/audio/Default%20Ener...](http://www.pzizz.com/wp-
content/uploads/audio/Default%20Energizer%2001.mp3)

------
mattmaroon
Maybe it's just me, but I'm always leery of any advice that involves not
getting a good night's sleep. There are some things you're better off not
trying to hack. Much evidence suggests your sleep cycle is one of them.

~~~
swombat
I'm not advocating not getting a good night's sleep. In fact, my article
doesn't even talk about whether you should implement monophasic, or biphasic,
or polyphasic sleep, or some other creative variant. This article is about how
to nap, not whether you should nap or at what time of the day you should nap
(and whether you should let it affect your sleep).

------
dusklight
sounds like what the author is describing is not so much napping but guided
meditation .. nothing wrong with that, anyone interested in this stuff might
want to use those keywords if they are going to do a websearch or something.

~~~
swombat
It may have started as guided meditation, I'm not arguing against that.
However, I now nap without any soundtrack, and without even an alarm clock, so
whatever it was that I was doing at the beginning, I think it's fair to call
what I'm doing now napping.

~~~
darshan
I teach meditation, and in my opinion, what you're doing is definitely a form
of meditation. You have an intentional practice of relaxation that doesn't
involve falling asleep. That's meditation.

Specifically, paragraphs like this can be found in hundreds of books on
meditation:

 _The best way I can describe the feeling of napping is that you lie down or
sit somewhere, and first focus on relaxing. Relax your muscle groups one by
one, from your neck all the way down to your toes. Take a good minute or two
to do this properly. Then finally you relax your thoughts. Let them drift off.
It’s important to gently nudge those thoughts towards more relaxing topics –
you won’t nap very well if you’re rehearsing a conversation with the boss –
but at the same time, they need to largely drift on their own. Keep your eyes
closed, your body relaxed, and let your thoughts meander from subject to
subject without much order._

~~~
swombat
Interesting.

You may be right... but if I derive all the typical benefits of napping
(increased alertness, ability to go for extended periods of a few weeks with a
lot less sleep, etc), is it not fair to call it napping? After all, if it
quacks like a duck...

Also, it does happen, though probably no more than 1 out of 5 times, that I
actually drift into a dream state while napping, which I would consider
equivalent to being asleep.

~~~
eru
Do you get lucid dreams? I am quite prone to lucid dreaming, especially when
napping or getting back into bed after waking up in the morning.

~~~
swombat
I've only had a couple of lucid dreams in my life, unfortunately (that I can
remember). I wish I had more - they were both very enjoyable.

I think part of the problem for me is that my dreams are so insane that it's
very difficult for me to implement mnemonic-induced lucid dreaming.

~~~
eru
Habits tend to carry over into dreams. Just make a habit of testing for
reality every once in a while (or when something looks remotely fishy). E.g. I
found that I can not read in dreams--or at least everything longer than a few
letters changes when I read it twice. (Jumping also works different in dreams,
but that's too geeky to do while you are awake.)

------
mike463
It seems these ways of falling asleep are really just creating favorable
conditions for sleep.

A number of years ago I learned how to relax and fall asleep in a very
effective way.

I was at a friend's house and tried a biofeedback device.

If you google search "GSR2" I think you'll find approximately the device I
learned with. Later I bought my own similar device (like ~$10) from radio
shack (google search "radio shack biofeedback monitor"). I don't know if they
make that anymore.

What these devices do is teach you to relax. You have a tone, and when you
relax, it decreases in pitch. If you just think you are relaxing, but the
pitch doesn't decrease (or goes up), you can't cheat. By the end, the pitch is
very low and you're almost asleep.

Once you learn how to do it, it's quite easy to relax and fall asleep. Using
the other tricks like darkness, earplugs or relaxing sounds can then help you.

------
mrj
"I will lie in bed, awake, forever thinking and rethinking whatever happens to
be on my mind at the time."

I can sympathize. I used to have a ton of trouble falling asleep until I
learned some basic meditation techniques to shut off the inner dialog.

I quite literally focus on turning off my brain. I'm not really doing that, of
course, but that's how I visualize it. With a little practice you can drift
off at will.

Also, I read once that the meditation masters would carry a bamboo stick for
students that fell asleep, for a good reason. :-)

------
philwelch
I'm somehow amused at the fact that he could easily get away with dozing off
in a restroom stall at his old workplace.

~~~
swombat
People don't notice that you're away from your desk for 20 minutes - at least
not in my line of work.

When the weather got warmer, I went outside to nap in the grass instead.

As for my productivity, I'm pretty sure it was greatly enhanced by the fact
that I was napping.

------
davidedicillo
I feel so old school in the way i take naps. just have lunch, drink and
espresso, lean comfortably on the couch and 20 minutes later (when the
caffeine kicks in), my alarm wakes me up, ready to knock out the rest of the
day. Well... the rest of the day until the next nap, right before dinner.

------
rradu
I use radio static to fall asleep; it has the same effect on me as those
binatural beats. I focus on trying to conjure up an image out of that noise (a
waterfall or a rainstorm is often what I get) and that consequently drowns out
my thoughts until I just pass out.

------
sdh
My strategy is to stay awake until I start to doze off. At that point, I go
straight to bed and usually fall asleep within a few minutes.

If I go to bed sooner than that, my mind races and I can't fall asleep.

------
baran
Brainwave entrainment java app:

<http://pantheon.yale.edu/~bbl2/GnauralJavaApplet_signed.html>

------
steveplace
I was expecting a sales pitch at the bottom. It's a great anecdote and I'll
try it out, but there's no evidence aside from his story that this works.

~~~
swombat
Just to make this clear:

I have no affiliation whatsoever with Pzizz. I mentioned it a lot because it
was a central element of how I learned to nap.

I have exchanged a couple of emails with the guys from Wakemate, and may
perhaps get a review unit at some point, but I won't derive any financial
benefit from it (I've paid for that unit!).

~~~
steveplace
I suppose I structured that sentence in a "jerk" fashion. My intent was that I
was looking for some more research into this method other than a story, well-
written I might add.

I didn't expect you to be paid by Pzzzzz, but I did check for affiliate links
;)

