Nappin' Ain’t Easy 3
Pressure ain’t easy…like a drip, drip, drip that'll never stop, whoa-oh
As we’ve been discussing, even regular nappers do not always have a set schedule of days or times they nap. Our bodies are not accustomed to the routine, which makes the process harder. But there is a far larger factor that makes napping a difficult endeavor and has led to nap rejection in some communities.
Namely, there is tremendous pressure to settle into a nap versus a night time sleep, and that pressure can eat away at the entire viability of a 30-45 minute snooze. At night, we usually wind (or are supposed to have wound) down before we lie down. If a sleep doesn’t take, we know that we have 7-9 hours to work with. We can figure it out…lay there for 15/30/45 minutes and know that when sleep overtakes us, we still have plenty of shut eye ahead. This is a self-calming feature. If it’s really a problem, we can reset — get up, walk around, climb back into bed.
For a nap, the entire window is 30-45 minutes. In a midday nap, we might be coming straight off of something that got us wired (work call, workout, stressful moment). Failing to quickly fall asleep could cost us the nap. There is simply no time for the mind to race and keep us awake, no time for a reset. As we lie there, expecting to nap, if it doesn’t take, the pressure grows, leading to a cycle of the mind working further against us to catch this precious window…