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How to nap: Power napping without sleeping
- aphyr 17y agoDid 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 17y agoBack 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 17y agohttp://www.pzizz.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/Default%20Sleep%2001.mp3 http://www.pzizz.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/Default%20Slee...
- zackattack 17y agoI think that the long-term benefits of elevated consciousness are worth $40.
- nhebb 17y agoI did. The sounds were relaxing but the talking was disruptive. Even with my sound settings maxed out, I couldn't hear what he was saying, so the voice was doubly distracting. That said, the software might be worth it if there is no mellow, therapy-guy yakking in the background.
- puffythefish 17y agoIn the actual software you can (thankfully) disable the voice.
- RevRal 17y agoI did, and I also looked at similar products. I found this (not software): http://www.vth.biz/driver/imusic/products http://www.vth.biz/driver/imusic/products . They have three different products under "Relax, Sleep": ZenMeditate, DeepSleep Suite, MaxRelax. The samples for DeepSleep are actually pretty nice, especially "Silky Ambient." But for $90(!) I hope it's potent. This is some serious stuff for some people.
- dusklight 17y agosounds 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 17y agoIt 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 17y agoI 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 17y agoInteresting. 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.
- edw519 17y agoI taught myself to nap almost anytime anywhere with one little secret: a Mindfold relaxation mask. http://www.mindfold.com/ 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.
- zackattack 17y agoPrior to getting the Mindfold, how long did it typically take for you to fall asleep at night?
- eru 17y agoI found that cheap masks are good enough for me. I do not need to block all light--just enough so that my eye lids can cope with the rest.
- pw 17y agoIn 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).
- bonecandy 17y agoTotally agree. Although I actually use a thick black sock where the top and bottom are sewed together :). I lose face masks all the time so I started to just make my own and not worry about losing them.
- baran 17y agoBrainwave entrainment java app: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~bbl2/GnauralJavaApplet_signed.html http://pantheon.yale.edu/~bbl2/GnauralJavaApplet_signed.html
- petercooper 17y agoI 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 17y agoYou'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.
- fuzzmeister 17y agoExactly, I am absolutely incapable of getting my brain not to interpret what a speaking voice is saying.
- petercooper 17y agoOh man, I can't remember ever attending a meeting where I didn't phase out..
- gommm 17y agoMeetings are special cases, on the contrary to podcasts and audiobooks they are designed to be boring :-) But yes I think I'm the same as you, I can ignore what other people are saying to me (my girlfriend hates that) but it's hard to ignore my own internal voice.
- grinich 17y agoMaybe somebody should start a podcast with just tracks of boring meeting talk.
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- sdh 17y agoMy 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.
- steveplace 17y agoI 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 17y agoJust 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 17y agoI 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 ;)
- wallflower 17y ago"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-coffee-spoon-naps-grocery-shopping-with-access/ http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/08/from-the-tips-box-coffe...
- fallintothis 17y agoThis also works wonders with a lightly-held pencil when you're falling asleep in class. Kept me awake through many early-morning lectures.
- gnosis 17y agoDali 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?
- adriand 17y agoI 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 17y agoI 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.
- mattmaroon 17y agoMaybe 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.
- _delirium 17y agoYeah, at most this seems like something to use occasionally, to be more alert despite being sleep-deprived. Possibly an alternative to just piling on caffeine. But I would definitely not read it as a technique for reducing the amount of sleep you "need", since sleep is a lot more than simply a thing that decrements your drowsiness meter. Twenty-minute power naps don't do fun things like memory consolidation, for example.
- swombat 17y agoI'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).
- philwelch 17y agoI'm somehow amused at the fact that he could easily get away with dozing off in a restroom stall at his old workplace.
- swombat 17y agoPeople 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.
- mrj 17y ago"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. :-)
- rradu 17y agoI 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.
- davidedicillo 17y agoI 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.
- loup-vaillant 17y agoBefore this article does collateral damage: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm 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 17y agoRebuttal to aforementioned article: http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-on-polyphasic-sleep/ http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-on-p...
- billswift 17y agoAlso here's a 5-1/2 month trial of polyphasic sleep - http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/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.
- mike463 17y agoIt 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.