I guess I needed to sleep. I took a 5 hour nap today. How embarrassing. I’m not a napper. I am in AWE of people who feel refreshed after naps. It is a skill I do not have. I have a VERY hard time bouncing back from naps. I don’t have a difficult time waking up in the morning after a good night’s sleep. I hear the alarm, and I am UP, the coffee’s brewing in a matter of 30 seconds, the teeth are brushed, the eggs are a-cooking, and I’m curled up in my chair for a good 2 hours of reading and quiet time … I am UP. I am ALERT. I am READY. But after a nap? An hour later I am still shuffling through my apartment in my flannel pjs, scratching my butt, standing still and stretching for no reason, looking around me with vacant eyes, and wondering what the hell day it is.
I’m going out tonight. I haven’t had a day off in 3 weeks.
A five hour nap will come in handy on a night out. I envy the possibilities. I haven’t had a good night out in a long time.
I am not an “up and at em” guy when I wake up after a nap or a night’s sleep. I use those same two hours in the morning to read and down coffee. I hardly ever feel well rested.
Personally, I’m a fan of the 20 minute to a half-hour nap.. but I find that if I go over that kind of time period other factors come into play.. disorientation.. Where am I?.. What day is it?.. Have I missed an important appointment?.. that sort of thing.
btw.. have a great night out!
//shuffling through my apartment in my flannel pjs, scratching my butt//
lol. at the risk of alienating you, sheila, i got such an *image* from this.
and then i wondered, what is with the scratching the butt thing? why do people scratch their butts when groggy? how is this instinctual? i mean, i rub my eyes compulsively when tired. this makes at least a little bit of sense–i want to close them. but, i mean…where does the butt thing come in? i do it too, but why? why must it be scratched when one is half-asleep?
anyone have any insight into this?
Beth – as most leading sleep disorder technicians will tell you, during REM sleep the neurons connected to the ass skin show increased activity and often fire off rapidly. The technical term for this is assilepsy. This evidently is a holdover evolutionarily. It seems that, while asleep, our ass “portals” are extremely vulnerable to life-threatening attack, so the brain “sensitizes” the cheeks in order to act as an early warning system. The hope is that some otherwise unsensed act (e.g., everything from a mosquito’s footfall to the rhythmic breathing of a wild animal) will alert the sleeper to the potential danger and allow them to deal with the sleepee. Once awake, all those hypersensitive nerve endings yearn to be scratched – hence, the common condition – Sleep Assnea.
I hope this helps :)
//The technical term for this is assilepsy//
ah. i see. tell me, is there a cure or treatment for assislepsy? its evolutionary rationale is clear, but in today’s modern society, it appears a vestigial mechanism, at best, and one that may actually compromise an individual’s opportunities to find a viable mate, which after all is the central principle of evolution and natural selection.
i hope pfizer is on this as we speak.
Beth: Yes, Pfizer is in double-blind test trials right now for their new drug, Mibuttsatinglin. I understand Suzanne Somers is their spokesass. :)
i have the worst time napping, as well. only really works when i’m sick, but if it accidentally happens some other time, i wake up lethargic, and not refreshed. my mornings are quite similar to yours, and have been for years.
I’ve always been extremely conscious of my ass portals.
Beth – I rub my eyes, too. But I do get itches in my ass on occasion. I am less inhibited about scratching them TO DEATH when I have first woken up.
sleep assnea …. heh heh heh heh heh
love naps..can nap anywhere /anytime..best time..between 2-4 in the afternoon…i can do a 20 min. pick-me -up or a several hour “disco” nap (as my friend John says)…love it! Jump in the shower and get back to the day. People often comment on the fact that i dont look my age or that my skin is good..im convinced its a combo of daily aloe applications and regular naps!
Many nights all I get is a “five hour nap.” I do not sleep very well so I’ve mastered the art of the 30 minute “disco nap.” It’s the nap you take before going out for the night.
Very rarely have I had one of those overwhelming, dead-to-the-world naps. In fact, I can remember one I took in college in 1996. That’s how good it was. I face planted on the couch and woke up in the dark. Man that was a good nap. My arms were straight down under my sides and I slept for hours. I believe I had another such nap this year, but it was not nearly as memorable as the nap of ’96.
Mitchell – maybe I need to start practicing the art of the disco nap.
Speaking of disco: have you seen Madonna’s new video? It’s AWESOME!!!! It’s kind of an homage to Saturday Night Fever – and she’s in a leotard – with feathered hair – dancing in a beat-up dance studio by herself … it is so. feckin’. COOL.
i havent seen it yet..im excited..the old braod still has it in her! I did jsut watch “8 Women”..a French murder mystery…delightful!!! Catherine Deneuve is a living work of art!
“the nap of 96” LOL!