How to nap: Power napping without sleeping
danieltenner.com
danieltenner.com
Hold a coffee spoon (or something else—use your imagination) in your hand.
Sit and relax on a comfy couch or chair with your arm hanging.
When you go into deep sleep (after about 20-30 minutes) your hand will relax and release the spoon, and the sound of the spoon falling will wake you up.
That is the perfect timing for the best nap ever."
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/08/from-the-tips-box-coffe...
That was me until I got some earphones and went to bed listening to podcasts every time. Having another voice chattering away (which I can ignore) stops my inner voice (which I can't ignore) chattering away. Works a treat.
But yes I think I'm the same as you, I can ignore what other people are saying to me (my girlfriend hates that) but it's hard to ignore my own internal voice.
Interestingly that trait may not be very heritable, or at least the effect of training/environment may be quite high. My anecdote for that is that my mother always falls asleep at audio books.
Yeah, but the problem is if I don't, I have a voice in my head talking instead. Literally, my internal voice is "talking" in my head non-stop all day coming up with ideas, figuring out what to do, complaining about crap, etc. Perhaps it's a mental illness but I never considered it a problem (yet). :-)
I wouldn't call this a 'mental illness', but non-stop mental chatter is a sign of disease -- in that your mind is not at ease.
You might find the symptoms to be relatively useful (non-stop idea factory!), but I think it is already causing you problems if you have to drown out the voices in your head with other voices just to fall asleep at night. Can this state be considered healthy functioning of the mind?
Then again, maybe it works for you. :)
but non-stop mental chatter is a sign of disease -- in that your mind is not at ease.
It once irritated me enough that I ended up in front of some sort of mental health practitioner. They came up with some things that involved taking poisonous metals as a "cure" but I privately went to a meta-cognitive therapist instead.
The result was that I can now "ignore" the errant part of my mind with the more usual, conscious "executive" part (I don't know all the terminology, sorry) but enjoy the fruits and spontaneity of what the uncontrollable side has to offer when I choose. It works, because I couldn't be much happier or productive now! :-)
I spoke with friends who had depression and were taking reasonably pedestrian drugs like Prozac, and while they were "happier" in the typical sense, ultimately they were less satisfied with life because the drugs dampened their vitality in a way they couldn't define.
(I know, a serious overshare, but that's part of the deal ;-) I suspect the majority of people have these sorts of issues at times, but society has entrained most people to keep it under wraps.)
Maybe an app that requires you to hold the iPod vertically and pauses audio playback out when it goes into any other position for more than a configurable number of seconds?
My method: first, only works if sleepy, or if conscious that sleep is really necessary. Second, obviously, avoid stimulants pre-nap. Third, get in a position where your head won't flop around if when you fall asleep. Then, with eyes closed, imagine your consciousness as a sphere - sort of like the world of wakeful attention. And then mentally, push that sphere away, distancing oneself from conscious thought. Finally: wake up 20 minutes later.
I have no idea if that will actually help anyone, but it works for me every time, with no gadgets, masks, whatever. I think the key is the ability to mentally distance oneself from conscious attention. If you can let the world slip away, you will fall asleep.
I think it works by quieting my internal voice and giving an image to the process of going to sleep.
The only thing I've ever found that provides total darkness in any condition with my eyes wide open. Combine it with a neck pillow and the right track on my ipod and I have a poor man's sensory deprivation chamber. A couple of deep breaths and the next thing you know, it's 20 minutes later.
There's a world of difference between $3 drugstore sleep masks and more expensive ones, in terms of comfort as well as light-blocking ability. I've been quite happy with Bucky brand sleep masks. They're available on Amazon along with a number of other masks in the $10-$15 range (including the Mindfold).
Acording to this, polyphasic sleep is a good technique when you can't afford to sleep much. Good in some extreme survival situations, like solo sailing. However, it is unnatural, and still leaves you in a sleep deprived state. Not good for everyday life. Even worse if you have to be creative.
One single nap just after lunch, however, is natural and good.
I actually stayed on the sample tracks for about a week when I started. By the 10th time you listen to the same track, though, it gets really tedious.
Btw, you have to listen to them with earphones to get the proper effect (which you probably did, but worth noting).
The samples for DeepSleep are actually pretty nice, especially "Silky Ambient." But for $90(!) I hope it's potent. This is some serious stuff for some people.
Specifically, paragraphs like this can be found in hundreds of books on meditation:
The best way I can describe the feeling of napping is that you lie down or sit somewhere, and first focus on relaxing. Relax your muscle groups one by one, from your neck all the way down to your toes. Take a good minute or two to do this properly. Then finally you relax your thoughts. Let them drift off. It’s important to gently nudge those thoughts towards more relaxing topics – you won’t nap very well if you’re rehearsing a conversation with the boss – but at the same time, they need to largely drift on their own. Keep your eyes closed, your body relaxed, and let your thoughts meander from subject to subject without much order.
You may be right... but if I derive all the typical benefits of napping (increased alertness, ability to go for extended periods of a few weeks with a lot less sleep, etc), is it not fair to call it napping? After all, if it quacks like a duck...
Also, it does happen, though probably no more than 1 out of 5 times, that I actually drift into a dream state while napping, which I would consider equivalent to being asleep.
I think part of the problem for me is that my dreams are so insane that it's very difficult for me to implement mnemonic-induced lucid dreaming.
I'm willing to overlook that every dictionary I've checked includes sleep as an essential part of what defines napping, since they all suck at defining meditation. To my mind, if we take successfully falling asleep out of the definition, a nap would still mean lying down, closing your eyes, and not engaging in a specific mental practice, but rather letting the sense of sleepiness overcome you. You might fall asleep, or you might just lie there, consumed in sleepiness for 20 minutes.
As soon as you start an exercise to control what your mind/attention does or does not do, however, you're getting into meditation territory: directing your attention to specific parts of your body and willing them to relax, directing your mind to relaxing thoughts, directing your mind away from distressing thoughts, and trying to culture a state where your mind drifts freely all qualify as meditation techniques to me.
I think intentions also matter. If you goal is to fall asleep for a while, then you probably napped, even if you didn't manage to fall asleep. If your goal is to let your mind and body relax and refresh, without preference to whether sleep happens or not, then that's meditation to me.
A number of years ago I learned how to relax and fall asleep in a very effective way.
I was at a friend's house and tried a biofeedback device.
If you google search "GSR2" I think you'll find approximately the device I learned with. Later I bought my own similar device (like ~$10) from radio shack (google search "radio shack biofeedback monitor"). I don't know if they make that anymore.
What these devices do is teach you to relax. You have a tone, and when you relax, it decreases in pitch. If you just think you are relaxing, but the pitch doesn't decrease (or goes up), you can't cheat. By the end, the pitch is very low and you're almost asleep.
Once you learn how to do it, it's quite easy to relax and fall asleep. Using the other tricks like darkness, earplugs or relaxing sounds can then help you.
I can sympathize. I used to have a ton of trouble falling asleep until I learned some basic meditation techniques to shut off the inner dialog.
I quite literally focus on turning off my brain. I'm not really doing that, of course, but that's how I visualize it. With a little practice you can drift off at will.
Also, I read once that the meditation masters would carry a bamboo stick for students that fell asleep, for a good reason. :-)
When the weather got warmer, I went outside to nap in the grass instead.
As for my productivity, I'm pretty sure it was greatly enhanced by the fact that I was napping.
If I go to bed sooner than that, my mind races and I can't fall asleep.
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~bbl2/GnauralJavaApplet_signed.html
I have no affiliation whatsoever with Pzizz. I mentioned it a lot because it was a central element of how I learned to nap.
I have exchanged a couple of emails with the guys from Wakemate, and may perhaps get a review unit at some point, but I won't derive any financial benefit from it (I've paid for that unit!).
I didn't expect you to be paid by Pzzzzz, but I did check for affiliate links ;)