How to Feel Rested in Summer
Hello, and a warm welcome back,
If I told you that for 20-40 minutes of your time during the day, you could gain the equivalent 180 minutes of sleep at night, would you believe me?
Well, please do believe me.
Instead of blackout curtains and elaborate relaxation rituals that take ages in the evening, you really can go to bed as usual, and—although you’ll wake early because of the early sunrise—you won’t feel sleep deprived.
Enter the power nap.
When people hear this term, many imagine lying down in bed during the early afternoon with an eye mask and falling asleep, perhaps for an hour. But that would mean you’d be waking yourself up in the deepest phase of our normal 90-120 minute sleep cycle, and it would leave you feeling disorientated, groggy and grumpy.
If you have the luxury, by all means sleep long in the afternoon—but make sure it’s long enough to complete that full sleep cycle. If you do that, you’ll gain like for like—that is, 90-120 minutes of night time sleep for the same amount of time in the afternoon.
If instead, you’d like to quadruple the value of the time you take for your ‘nap’, try this:
Choose a quiet place on the floor or ground. Lie down on your back, knees bent comfortably, hands resting on your rib cage or stomach, and your head supported by around 5 cm (or one average-sized novel). Set an alarm or timer for anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes and push it slightly to one side of you so you have to reach to turn it off. Now close your eyes and start breathing in through your nose, holding the breath until you want to release it, and then letting the breath fall out of your mouth gently and evenly. If you like, you can imagine breathing in your favourite colour and breathing out a colour you don’t like. When the alarm sounds, roll slowly onto one side, sit up with care, and then get up and go on about your normal day.
That’s it. No beds, no pillows—not even any sleeping. Just resting, deeply.
You can do this up to twice a day, any time you like (although taking a power nap just before bedtime will be less effective). You won’t feel that overwhelming grogginess you’d feel if you woke out of deep sleep, because you won’t have time to go to that level. You will, however, have plenty enough time to refresh your mind and body completely.
Why not give it a go?
Until next time, happy power napping and enjoy your new found ability to remain alert on summer days.
Best wishes,
Linda
Lovely idea - THANKS! As always, such great advice!!