Power Nap from Hell

Wow! Talk about a power nap! I fell asleep at about 5:15pm. I woke up at 8:45pm. I really didn't even feel that tired, just a little cranky and I didn't want to do any of the tasks at hand. I thought "Wouldn't a nap be nice?" SO i lay down just for a second and BAM I wake up and it is dark.

But you know, the recommendation is that a power nap last no longer than 20-30 minutes, because "Longer naps can make you groggy and tired." I assume that they mean that once you go past 30 minutes, if you don't let your body wake itself up (meaning sleep for that full 3 hours until you feel rested and wake up naturally) that when you wake up (unnaturally in an hour or so) you will be more cranky than before.

I agree that initially I am a bit cranky if not allowed to nap to my desired extent. But that doesn't mean I break off in nap time in 30 minutes. I had always believed that those people who can nap for just 30 minutes either ARE NOT TIRED enough to really NEED a nap, or they are those type of people who can sleep anywhere at anytime (husband) and are known to fall asleep in the car, in the chair, on a bus, airplane, etc... whenever they are sitting for a period of time longer than 1 hour, etc. I am NOT one of those people. I only sleep on trips in excess of 2-4 hours and sometimes not even then. Even as an avid taker of Dramamine to control motion sickness, I have stayed awake the whole time on a 4 hour flight.... Just because I am alert and can't sleep, despite trying.

So I started to look online for information about power napping, and discovered that anything beyond 30 minutes is not considered power napping. So what DO we call a 3 hour nap? I googled "really long nap" and found lots of information on paint rollers and a story about a dinosaur that died and was fossillized while sleeping. Yikes. So I know that if I sleep longer than 30 minutes I may become fossillized. Oh and in my searches I also founf out that NIN cancelled it's two upcoming concerts because their drummer Jerome is hospitalized with chest pains and an irregular heartbeat. Wow. Being a NIN Fan, I didn't even know that and was surprised. I checked the nin Website and found that he is better and the Monday show will go on as usual (Pheonix, Arizona.) All this over a "long nap."