When I have a rough day or don’t sleep well the night before, I take a 30 minute ‘nap’ when I get home after work. It’s strictly 30 minutes.
It doesn’t matter if I fall asleep or not, it’s a strict 30 minute limit. I set a timer and I stand up when it rings. This lets me turn an otherwise completely wasted evening into something salvageable. Then, I can have a regularly active evening - I cook, play games, paint, whatever.
I don’t really have trouble falling asleep after that at the regular time, or maybe an hour late. I do struggle sometimes to ‘boot up’ after the nap, and it doesn’t always help (mostly when I don’t actually fall asleep) but it has worked for me more times than not.
Also, I drink a LOT of coffee - way too much. This is what works for me.
When I have a rough day or don’t sleep well the night before, I take a 30 minute ‘nap’ when I get home after work. It’s strictly 30 minutes.
It doesn’t matter if I fall asleep or not, it’s a strict 30 minute limit. I set a timer and I stand up when it rings. This lets me turn an otherwise completely wasted evening into something salvageable. Then, I can have a regularly active evening - I cook, play games, paint, whatever.
I don’t really have trouble falling asleep after that at the regular time, or maybe an hour late. I do struggle sometimes to ‘boot up’ after the nap, and it doesn’t always help (mostly when I don’t actually fall asleep) but it has worked for me more times than not.
Also, I drink a LOT of coffee - way too much. This is what works for me.
It takes about 45 min to hit REM sleep. Which is the point that you’d wake up MORE tired.
30 min max is key for naps
Came here to post the same advice. 30 minutes… Absolute max.