It may seem like an odd question today, but I'm literally four thousand words from finishing this book I'm writing, and I want a nap! But I don't nap… Or I try to nap and it rarely ever happens. Sigh. This was a discussion post on The Writer's Well podcast two weeks ago, and I found both the discussion and the comments on the post fascinating.
The nap idea seems to vary widely between people. One of the podcasters, Rachael Herron, loves to take a long nap in the middle of the day. The other podcaster, J Thorn, has always had trouble napping and has found that 30 minutes now works best for him. My husband came home yesterday and told me about a man he saw napping on a couch in an office common area with people ALL AROUND HIM. The man was OUT and snoring even! While five or six people talked around him. Impressive.
I have tried to nap for many years. My husband can lie down in bed and fall asleep within a few minutes, that lucky bastard. It takes me a long time to fall asleep, if I do at all. I've tried meditations, extra blankets, heating pads, and a ton of other little tricks to get my body to wind down and sleep. No dice.
There are only a few instances where I'm able to fall back to sleep during the day…
- if I wake up in the morning and I'm still exhausted, I can go back to sleep within an hour or two of waking.
- if I'm sick.
In the current book I'm writing, my main character has “space lag.” She got into a really stressful situation, jumped on a ship with little-to-no circadian time clues, and has been having nightmares when she DOES sleep. So her internal clock is all out of whack. One moment she's holding it all together. The next moment she's a puddle on the floor. Writing her has reminded me of my own sleep troubles. I need pharmaceutical help to sleep most nights, and yet, I'm still tired most of the time, but I can't nap! It's totally infuriating.
My next step is to try getting in a warm bed and meditating for 30 minutes. I hope that works for me, to refresh me and get back in the swing of things.
