Happy Hump Day!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! The sun is finally shining in this city by the bay and I am doing my best to get out there and enjoy it. With all the changes in my schedule lately I’ve been feeling quite tired. I finally bit the bullet and started taking naps to give me enough energy to get through the 5am wake ups and 9pm close outs. 
I have always been on the fence about napping – I felt time was more importantly spent doing other things – foolish me! I did a bunch of research, tested some theories, and now I’m sharing my results with all of you to round out this month’s Wellness Wednesday. Here are 5 things I’ve learned about napping, why it works, and what to avoid.
Napping 101
- Shorter is better – I was always under the impression I needed a few hours in the middle of my day to dedicate to napping but it turns out anywhere btwn 20-60 minutes is really best.
- Waking aint easy – I don’t know if this one is a universal or not but I have the hardest time getting up from my naps…I want so desperately to linger/go back to sleep. That feeling goes away after 5-10 minutes but its always there (for me).
- Recharge the battery – With so much to do and such a unique work schedule my days are longer than usual, which means I am not getting as much sleep at night as I used to. I look at it like my phone battery – since I wasn’t able to get a ‘full charge’ overnight I have to recharge mid-day to keep things running.
- No Screens/Sound – Since napping isn’t something I have a lot of time for it’s paramount to get right into it. At first I was watching TV to nap or listening to music but I ended up getting too caught up in the audio/visual stimulus that it took longer to fall asleep than just laying quietly in a darker place.
- There is always time – I love to talk myself out of something by saying I don’t have enough time & that, quite frankly, is bullshit…everyone has enough time and the reality it if you don’t make time to nap and you really need to, you won’t be able to effectively do all the other things on your plate anyway!
’til next time, keep smiling! 😉
Livingleen 