zenscription

Man, it must suck for people who can't nap.

Part of the problem i think for those who have trouble napping is that the body confuses it with sleeping for the night. It's not. It's more like restful meditation for less than an hour. Lie down in a quiet room, think of things - altering with the thought that you will get up in 45 minutes - and don't try to sleep. The 3rd time you do this you will have napped (but you may not be sure in your head that you actually napped - sometimes you can dream you were awake).

The point is to rest. Think of things but let them go. It's ok to think of the dust on the ceiling fan but don't imagine yourself cleaning it off. That's for later; right now your 'doing' is napping.

We normally don't think of 'doing' something as we sleep or nap, but that's exactly what it is. While nighttime sleep is necessary to most people, napping is not and so the first worry is "I'm wasting time. Time i could be balancing my checkbook. Or gardening." It doesn't matter that what you think you should be doing. It's a tough spot to be in. Rarely have you ever napped restfully, so you have a hard time giving it validity as a 'doing.' But, once you've napped and awoken refreshed a few times you can't believe that you've added another day to your day!

It's rare, but sometimes... sooometimes a nap will end early or be interrupted or begin to drift into the abyss that is sleep. THEN you will wake up completely fogged. Unglued to reality, and it isn't good. In fact for some - like myself- it's actually physically painful. Your head hurts not like a headache from the inside but like the result of thinking from the outside. Not the outside of the brain, but the very outside world that your brain isn't. If that analogy is hard to conceptualize, it's deliberate because it's exactly how your brain hurts. It can't wrap itself around reality anymore, and it takes some 10-15 minutes to become unpainful, connected and useful again.

Anyway, that's my thinking on napping at the moment.