The Theory of the Power Nap

I’m a bit weird. I like taking power naps. It doesn’t really matter when or how or what or…

Well, my friend Mike said he once microslept on the road. D: Way uncool. Actually, I think it’s kind of funny, but I prefer to sleep in safe situations.

When I get bored I get really tired. I find train rides to be useful slots of time where I can read a book, do a Sudoku puzzle, listen to music really carefully, do my homework – anything that will sufficiently kill time. Sometimes I take a nap, and I don’t bother putting an alarm on, because I trust that I’ll wake up in time for my stop.

Yesterday I went out with James and we walked around much of the city, just seeing the sights. There is something mundane about going to university every day and commuting pretty much an hour, whether you’re on the train, on the bus, or walking. Or running, if you’re going to miss your train or bus. Yet, there is always something intriguing about the city and it has its little corners and nooks that no one is really aware of. A guy in my class did his second photography assignment in an old battered building just a few streets away from university. I had been past that area but I had never actually walked down the street. It was really intriguing. Also, when I went to have breakfast with Krissy last week, she mentioned that the street looked sketchy and I had to agree. Going to the city so often yet not going down that road and noticing how it was. /faw

James and I went to the gardens in the city and saw so many joggers. I am not even joking… there was like a whole mob of them. James was even trying to think of the collective noun for joggers. I haven’t bothered looking but there were so many of them, they might as well have been a mob. O_O He doesn’t like jogging at all, and was continually dissing them along the way. I didn’t really agree – I kind of like jogging. There was, however, a group of people doing pushups against a rock face, with an instructor telling them “do ten more! Go!”. I don’t think he was such a great trainer because I could see that some of the guys had curved backs (ouch) or their bottoms were in the air – their backs were not straight at all. James said that he couldn’t believe that people had to actually pay an instructor or a trainer to be motivated to exercise. Paying money to just do 20 pushups that you could do at home… without even travelling. If you really try you can be motivated.

I don’t see the point either.

By the time we had lunch we were pretty tired. We actually fell asleep on the train and it wasn’t until the train stopped at our station that we woke up. Luckily James alerted me before it was too late, and we made it out the door. I think I was still half asleep. XD

This morning, I decided to shut my eyes when I was on the way to university on the train. I got a seat, and I wasn’t intending on sleeping, but I actually fell asleep while listening to music. I woke up but the train ride had only passed halfway and I was surprised. I felt like it had been so long that I had been sleeping.

Sometimes I think sleeping makes time go slower. Then again we don’t know. Sleep overcomes us but we don’t see it.

Comments on this post

Yeah I don’t see why people bother with paying a trainer for stupid stuff like that. Pay the guy to yell at you to do bad-form pushups just doesn’t seem like a good financial decision, haha.

I love naps but I guess it has been a while now since I last took one :( I don’t think sleeping on the road is a good idea, but I remember when I was much younger I was traveling on the local train back in India with my dad, since it was very crowded we were both standing and I fell asleep while standing /hehe (this was late in the evening so I guess it was near my sleep time XD)

I used to have an hour bus commute before I got my car/driving license, I mostly listened to music. I try to read but a lot of times I will feel dizzy so I don’t read on the bus anymore. The train however is more suited to reading since it’s movements are somewhat different. I guess you are curious about that street now…I wonder if you checked it out with James?

LOL I know what you are saying…when I was in Boston I saw a lot of joggers too…but probably not a mob XD. I personally think jogging is better than running since you can take in more of the scenery, also since you don’t get tired easily you can continue longer. Even though at times motivating yourself to exercise can be difficult but if you can manage to get outside then you don’t need an instructor. The most difficult part for me is mostly changing into workout clothes and just getting outside of my house XD

Hmm…well I guess because I don’t get as much sleep anymore, for me personally time seems to fly by when I am sleeping 😢 I wake up to my alarm only to snooze it for another 30 minutes lol. I guess time probably slows down when you are napping :3

I don’t understand why trainers are needed, anyway. I mean, sure, it’s fun to be fit and work out – according to them – but people can also find a friend and have a workout buddy… I think doing that would be more motivating than anything, but that’s just me, LOL.

I tend to nap every once in a while, but I haven’t gotten to recently (even though it’s really needed) because Tony’s upset with me. There’s just a lot of junk going on. :L …I actually looked into PCOS. The first thing that got me was the few menstrual cycles per year, and then I kept on reading. …I felt my right side hurt again today. :( Last time in May it hurt two days after. Today is two days after my period. That means that it’s back and the pain I felt from the birth control was my cyst as well as the side effects. Oh, joy… /wah

:/ If only my mom understood that sometimes sleep takes over us, heh.

You tend to post at 11:59pm… Is this coincidental, or do you time it for such a thing, or what? :P I’m just curious… :)

I think that personal trainers are tutors that people hire to correct them when they’re doing something wrong – kind of like a piano teacher. A good one will teach you a lot and save you a lot of injuries. However, the one you described is not good at all. I always thought that they were supposed to be encouraging, and not yell at you at all.

Pretty sure that every city has a sketchy part. I try to stay far away from them…

If sleeping were a sport, I’d actually be the olympic champion. So far for the summer all I do is sleep and work. It’s sad actually, I can barely find time to do anything….it sucks! It’s funny because at work this girl is taking Human Kinetics in university and she was talking about power naps and stuff. I actually found out during that conversation that eating an apple is actually better than an energy drink (since most people take power naps to gain some quick energy). Since the apple has natural sugars, it keeps you alert and stuff. Oops! Looks like I’m going off topic haha.

I actually want to start jogging and going to the gym. I’d pay for a gym membership and to use gym equipment, but not for someone to help motivate me? I could probably watch a special on TLC and that’s probably all the motivation a person really needs (no offense to anyone – this is a joke lol).

I agree with the whole sleep alters time sort of! Sometimes it feels like forever or sometimes it feels like you slept for like an hour and you really slept for 8 hours and you still feel tired. That happens to me a lot. It sucks, but even though I got my 8 hours and feel like I barely got half of that. Terrible feeling haah. Hope all is well with you!

Haha, naps are awesome. I can never take proper naps myself though, I never manage to fall asleep so I just kind of lie there and relax. A few weeks ago I remember I had stayed up the night before to cram some homework, and when I got home I was so tired I lied down for a while and fell asleep. I got woken up by a loud noise five minutes later, but that five minutes had felt like five hours and I could work again. XD
Joggers! There are always so many joggers on the road here as well. There’s a regular here, an old man who runs faster than I do. It’s almost scary how fast he is, seriously. XD

I kind of get the point of trainers: some people really need someone there to *make* them do things. You *can* force yourself to do things, but some people find it easier if there’s someone there making them do it. That and the whole encouragement thing, I guess. On the other hand, trainers are pretty costly — I’d rather force myself to do something and spend the money on something else.

I totally agree with you re: naps. Me? I love me some naps; I’ve always taken them, at least once day. (Manic/crazy days aside, of course.) I don’t think I ever grew out of napping the way most people seem to. Those “Five Hour Energy” drinks have nothing on a good, quick nap. ;)

I’m just like you. Taking power naps is already a hobby for me. 😝

Yeah. I do the same. When I’m riding a bus, it’s either I read a book, listen to music, watch the TV in the bus or surf the internet.

When I ride around town early in the morning, or late at night, I almost-always see joggers. There’s actually an organization for them here in our city. My mom is like James. XD She keeps on dissing the joggers saying that they’re shorts are too short or that the women are too fat to wear something “exposing”.

One thing I don’t do is run. I hate running, even at the gym I hate running. I did a 12 hour power nap last week. Holy shite I was wrecked …

Haha I wouldn’t even call that a power nap. More like a sleep. :)

OK, we’ll call it a power sleep … (H)

Hello!

LOL, the city is never monotonous for me. Since I decided NOT to go to uni in the city, I manage to say something clueless about where something is located or get lost EVERYTIME I’m there. It’s sad considering I LIVE in Australia and like…City = CBD. Oh well :P. I probably will NEVER be able to find those little intriguing places you’re talking about XD.

Aww I disagree with you guys! I think that sometimes, it could totally pay off to have a personal trainer, provided they actually want to seriously help you, and not just want to take your money. Because sometimes there is just NO WAY to motivate yourself to get off your butt and exercise, unless someone forces you. Seriously, this morning I tried to get up at 7.30am to exercise, and it was SO COLD and I was SO TIRED, I ended up turning off my alarm and jumping back into bed. Lazy ass people like me totally need personal trainers. Wish they came for free cos I bet they’re all overpriced x(.

But the trainer you described seriously sounds like he’s a total loser. Should you try to correct peoples’ incorrect techniques so they don’t hurt themselves?! Push-ups probably don’t do much if you’re not doing them correctly ==.

LOL joggers! I admire their dedication to running in winter XD. I see joggers running down my uni sometimes and I’m like “wtf?!” before I remember that it’s actually literally 1km from my uni to the train station which probably explains why they’re jogging there :O.

Lucky James woke you up when you were sleeping on the train! It’d totally suck to miss your stop, which btw, totally reminds me of when we got on the wrong train coming back from the city D:. Oops :P.

well, the whole point of a fitness instructor is for personalized attention to make sure you’re exercising correctly and getting the most out of your time. Sounds like this guy fails.

I can nap anywhere, as long as it’s between 1-3pm. Otherwise, I better be pretty comfy.

This is the first time I have ever pre-ordered anything myself. Tyrone recommend it to me because when ever he has pre-ordered anything it has arrived the day before. It might happen but I won’t get my hopes up.

I wish I could take power naps but I find it very difficult to sleep in the day. And I can’t fall asleep on any form of transport. I really wish I could sleep on planes.

You can always see much more when your not in a rush. I love walking around Liverpool and finding new areas of the city to explore. I hope to find more if I get into university there. :) I enjoy exploring.

Sleep is a weird thing. I get that feeling too when I doze off and it feels like I had been asleep for hours when it’s only been 15 mins. It sucks though becaues you sleep too little, you feel like crap. Sleep too much and you still can feel like crap. You can’t win!

I think each person has their own amount of hours that they thrive on. I noticed that once I sleep past 7 hours, I feel really sluggish and lazy. While my boyfriend on the other hand, if he sleeps more than 9 hours, he’s sluggish but if he sleeps are perfect 9 hours, he has the energy to do anything!! That’s why I am always awake 2 hours ahead of him becaues if he wakes up the same amoutn of hours I do then he’s complainign all day that he’s tired. Strange how things work like that.

I’m always scared of sleeping in public places especially on the bus and train! Always scared that I’ll miss my stop or end up in some random place and don’t know where the hell I am!

I wish I was a jogger too but my lungs aren’t very conditioned to do any type of running/jogging haha. In due time. I don’t see myself with a personal trainer either. But I guess some people just really need that type of motivation where someone has to get into your face to get you to exercise. Sometimes I feel like I need that but no … I don’t want to have to feel pressured into doing something. Especially something where pain can be involved … OUCH

Like I said before, I love your layout. It’s such a good change from the normal boxed in layouts that you see on most sites.

I’m not very good at sleeping while we are travelling but if I get drowsy I just put my head phones in pull a blanket over me and close my eyes for a while. That way if I don’t sleep at all I still relaxed for an hour or so during the trip. Sometimes that is all you need to feel better.
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Mhm. I’m trying to learn how to NOT butcher any layouts of yours anymore. It’s pretty addictive though. So if you see an upcoming layout on my site that looks like one that you may have had in the past, let me know. I’ll put up another premade and make myself make a new layout for IBE.
I will admit that I have done it in the past. In fact, a lot of my layouts came from layouts you made in the past. I am learning to not even have your site up when I am looking for inspiration though. I’m trying to keep myself in either Netflix, my own sites, video games or Photoshop. It’s hard but I gotta learn if I want to be a good website developer in the future. :)

Yeah. That would be awesome if everyone could meet everyone else. That would be just like high school again! An awesome high school for the computerly educated. ;)

Thanks Erin! :) I wasn’t too sure about how a fluid layout would go, knowing I would have to cut down on the images because of the resizing, but I also wanted to try something different and I’m happy it turned out alright.

I usually am listening to music when I’m on transport and that in itself helps me relax. I also look outside the window… I’ll admit if it’s nighttime I can fall asleep more easily, too.

I think my WordPress theme tutorial should help you start from scratch. I don’t mind anyone butchering my templates that I offer for free, as long as I get credited for the base. Of course I’m less pleased about having existing layouts being butchered even with credit, because it’s not like I gave permission for, say, my current layout to be snatched. :P

Well, I do find inspiration in most of what happens in real life. There’s much out there to be discovered. :) Good luck with your revamp!

Thanks.

I think I need to redo my layout again…Hm…Ugh. It is so hard for me to find INSPIRATION instead of butchering layouts.

Again, I am sorry about that.

Yeah, it’s always easy to fall asleep at night. :) That is our natural time to sleep. :P

I always nap. Ever since I met this really cool guy from Spain who napped every afternoon, I started doing it too. Along with drinking a class of wine with my dinner every night. Maybe that was illegal at the time I started doing that but I like to think that it helped with my high blood pressure ( Not that I had high blood pressure).

I really HATED communiting to UW back when I lived in Seattle. I lived less that 10 miles from campus and yet it would take me 2 ours to get there by train or bus and driving really isn’t the best option if you’re trying to get through downtown. But last year I transferred to WSU on the other side of the state and love it here. it’s a really tiny town so no traffic and I live only a 10 mnute walk away from work and 15 from campus. Which kind of means that I really don’t have an excuse to be late to work, but I’m lucky that my boss doesn’t mind either.

I really dig this new layout btw. It’s adorable =]

Ah, I hate naps! I have never been fond of them, except for when I was a baby. I have a hard enough time falling asleep at night, so there is no way that I can do it during the day. My sleeping schedule would probably be all messed up.

I am going to have to start jogging to get ready for cheerleading practices, because we have to jog there and I have never done it before. I am actually excited, I think it will be somewhat therapeutic.

Seriously! I have ALWAYS wondered how people sleeping on public transportation wake up at just the right moment to get off! Especially since trains/subways don’t have the microphone that says the stops, like the bus does.

Have a great day!

I occasionally see a huge line of bikers along the road, but never a mob of joggers. XD

I guess people pay fitness instructors and trainers because even though they might already be motivated, they need that extra push. I don’t understand why they can’t just ask a friend or family member for moral support, though.
And twenty push-ups isn’t a lot. I can do around thirty push-ups in about two minutes while keeping my back straight. It annoys me whenever I see people do fake push-ups by barely bending their elbows and just ducking their head fifty times, and then brag about how many push-ups they did. :P

I love to sleep. I remember falling asleep for only one or two minutes and it felt like an hour.

whoa,wait a minute. microsleep?! on the road? wowww~ he’s awesomeee~ didn’t anyone passed by or something? /imagining the scenario.
though I google it, and I think I get it.. but I just wanna make sure of it; so.. power nap is like taking a short nap due to fatigue? /slow. it’s really nice if I can grab a camera (too bad I’m not allowed to have one yet) and then walk around the city, taking pictures.. but then again, the country where I’m staying is just…. awful. /ehh
sleeping becomes one of my hobbies now..maybe because I’m sitting in front of the PC like 24/7 every day especially during long holiday,hahaha.

I’ve never been able to power nap, my brain sadly doesn’t work that way, wish it did though!

First let me say that I love your layout! The milk carton is cute, hehe. I really should start coding mine. I’m pretty busy this weekend though. :(

I don’t really take naps, mostly because I’m afraid that if I do I won’t sleep.

I love watching all the buildings pass us by when we’re in the car. Every now and then, you see something worth noting!

Maybe I should go jogging. I could definitely use the exercise.

Honestly, I don’t see the point of it either. Waste of money.

I always fall asleep at the wrong times and don’t fall asleep at the right times. It’s damn annoying. I try to go to sleep in the car on the way to school when I know I need it, but I never can fall asleep. My brother always does though, automatically.

I power nap all the time! I love naps. I remember back during the days on school holidays, I would take a nap every afternoon because I was bored. Boredom definitely makes one sleepy.

I can sleep really well when I’m in a car. My boyfriend normally drives me from my house back to his on the weekends. I would sleep most of the way. I just find it super nice to sleep in the car.

I use to take the train to work and would regularly fall asleep. I couldn’t sleep very long though because the journey was only 30mins. Most of the time I would worry that I’ll miss the stop.