Napping to Awaken the Genius Within

Posted on December 31, 2009 by LJ

This week I’m giving myself a break from writing. Over the next two months, I will be integrating worthy posts from my other blog, LauraEarnest.com, in preparation for shutting it down. The next five days will be the first wave of posts to come over.

Photo by zenera

One of my favorite books, Inner Peace For Busy Women: Balancing Work, Family, And Your Inner Life (aff), has a great chapter on sleep debt. I don’t know a single working mom who gets enough sleep all the time. Everyone I asked looked at me like I was crazy. One put it very pointedly, “You’re a working mom. You know what it’s like. How can you ask such a stupid question?”

Napping: Not Just For Little Ones

The truth is that most of us, running on fumes or caffeine, keep right on going through our sleepy times. Another cup of coffee, a quick fix of sugar, and we’re off again…at least until it wears off.

I remember a time when I envied my daughter her nap time. I wished that I could lie down next to her as well and sleep for a few blissful hours. Sometimes I did. But on most days I don’t have the luxury of sleeping that much in the middle of the day.

What I have discovered, though, is that I can close my eyes and either meditate or nap for 15 minutes and come out feeling incredibly refreshed. The trick is to make sure I wake up at the end of 15 minutes, and I don’t sleep longer than 30.

If you are running ragged, give it a try. Set a timer for 15 minutes and shut your eyes.

I wanted to give a plug here for a recent discovery. I have been using Pzizz for a couple of years to generate “naps” which allow me to both power nap and fall asleep more quickly. I generated a few naps, converted them into MP3, and used them like other MP3s. Recently, I discovered that they came out with iPod/iPhone applications of this software that generate naps on the fly. While they are memory-heavy compared to my other iPod applications, I use them almost daily. (No affiliation)

Photo by zenera

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