Naps Aren’t for the Faint of Heart

Like many other young people I know, my sleep schedule is very poor. There are often nights I don’t fall asleep until 2am and in the morning I don’t wake up until 10am. I have tried about every possible thing to change this pattern and yet I still don’t get enough sleep. So for the past week, I took up napping. This isn’t actually a new thing for me, as I have been known to fall asleep in the afternoon anyway. However, I planned my naps this time. What I learned is that napping is not just as easy as falling asleep in the middle of the day and it is an activity not for the faint of heart.

I decided that every day as soon as my classes were over I was going to take a 30-minute nap. I have been told a nap of ideal length is long enough for you to feel rested but not long enough to fall into a deep sleep and feel startled when you wake up. I am not good at this. I have always been a fan of the unexpected three-hour nap on the couch before dinner where my parents had to inevitably wake me up for spaghetti. I was always grumpy the rest of the day. For the majority of my childhood, and even now, my mom has tried to prevent me from napping at all costs. I will wake up feeling less rested than before, even grumpier than I was before, and not excited to be around people. All this is to say, I landed on the idea of a 30-minute nap every day around 2 o’clock. 

Preparing for these naps took a lot more than I thought it would. This is not a time of day when people usually become unreachable. I am an obsessive phone checker. I check every notification almost instantly so to avoid distraction while trying to nap I would have to turn my phone entirely off. But this led to problems of sleeping for longer than I would like with no alarm to wake me up. Long story short, I discovered the Do Not Disturb feature on my phone for the first time. Even still, I struggled to get comfortable in the middle of the day to intentionally take a nap. 

At the end of the week, I don’t think I accomplished one successful nap. I slept too long some days and not at all on others. I am struggling to recognize if naps are something of an art form that I need to master, or if they just aren’t for me. They feel so good when they happen by accident, but I always feel pretty bad afterward. 

So for now, I am done scheduling my naps. Taking the pressure of when and how long I take them might help. I plan to continue resting in the afternoon before picking up my evening responsibilities but perhaps not always in the form of a nap. Naps are not for the faint of heart and I am thoroughly jealous of those who can lay down and fall asleep for 20 minutes and then wake up and feel rested. 

 

If you would like to write for Her Campus Mount Holyoke, or if you have any questions or comments for us, please email hc.mtholyoke@hercampus.com.