to ask if you can powernap, how do you do it?

[Chamomileteaplease]

After reading the thread about the woman napping in the loos, it made me envious that she could do that!

Even if I go to bed in the afternoon, it can take me over an hour to have even a ten minute sleep.

The thought that I could close my eyes for ten minutes and actually sleep and recharge is just amazing.

Is there a knack to powernapping?

I couldn’t do it until I had dd who wouldn’t sleep and I had to be able to.

A meditation app helps me now.

Or a fail safe method (if you’re in the privacy of your own home and sufficiently in private) - a wank.

I nap in the evenings. I have to, I'm ready for bed 8pm and if I go to bed then I'll be wide awake by 3am! So I usually sleep for 30mins early evening to keep me going till 11 and always sleep well afterwards.

I used to work shifts so I think I learnt to sleep anytime, anywhere.
I can literally put my head on my desk and be asleep within minutes.
I love a nap

Thank you everyone who has replied but it seems no one can teach those of us who can't do it.

Thank you for the tips of podcasts etc but I just find these powernappers to be like magic people!

I am the Queen of naps..yet i struggle to settle down at night, even after a full day at work with no napping I'm wide awake at night. Everyone has an optimum nap time that will leave them feeling refreshed, mine is between 10 minutes and 40 minutes. Any more than that and I wake up feeling hungover. I lay in my room, a pillow across my eyes, fan on for white noise, set the alarm and I'm gone. I've napped on the loo at work too!

I think you're either a napper or you aren't. I can nap pretty much any time - today I fell asleep cuddling DD in our bed for an hour and a half in the afternoon, which was lovely, and I woke up feeling fine and will sleep fine tonight. But DH has had about three naps in the seven years we've been together and hates napping!

I had an excellent nap earlier. I was lying on the sofa MNing, thought gosh I'm quite tired, shut my eyes and then woke up 20 minutes later feeling much perkier!
I never nap for more than half an hour and I'll still go to bed at normal time and sleep fine.

@Blackandgreenteas a wank 😂😂 so true!

I can nap anywhere, any time.

Don’t even need to be lying down. I can just sit there, bow my head, relax and off I go. It’s a family thing I think because I’ve seen my dad and my uncles adopt the same position!

Love a nap. Most of the time it’s just 10-20 mins if I get chance. But at the weekend I love a good hour dozing on the sofa with something nice and chilled like Four in a Bed on in the background

I never do it on purpose. I have the occasional accidental power nap though.

I’m a power napper
When I was in the army, sheer exhaustion during training meant that I could fall asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow. From there I learned to grab sleep anytime and anywhere that the opportunity arose, and in plenty of not very nice environments (ie a hole in the ground, in Scotland in December during training exercises ).
I don’t think my brain has ever fully let go of that, and I can still grab 20 mins whenever it’s available and wake up fresh as a daisy!

Apparently drinking coffee just before a power nap really helps you in feeling energised when you wake up.

A 20 minute nap? That is so not worth it! If I'm going to have an afternoon nap, I do it properly, at least an hour.

I don't really get the opportunity to nap these days

Tv or radio on very low works better than silence for me then the dialogue just sort of becomes my dream.

I love a snooze more than anything.

I get into bed about 3pm, watch the tv on very low volume for a few minutes and wake up about an hour later. Heaven.

Yes, I can lie on the sofa with my head on a cushion and the throw over me, close my eyes, sleep for 20 mins and wake up feeling like I have had a good night's sleep.
Not that I ever get the chance but if I also put a Radio 4 play on, I can sleep for a couple of hours

I’d love to know! I struggle to sleep at night and I’m often still awake at 1am, my boyfriend goes to bed at about 9:30 when he stays over and falls asleep straight away, it’s not fair.

I darken my bedroom, get into bed and set my alarm for 50 minutes.

My sleep cycle is about 45 minutes, so as long as I don't go into another deep sleep I can wake up feeling relatively ok.

The other thing that can help me is drinking some instant coffee a little while before: I get the caffeine high then the 'dip', which helps me to get to sleep. Strange but true!

Visualisation. There's some sort of science-y explanation but basically trying to "see" things in your head makes it easier to sleep. I nap by counting backwards from 20, slowly, visualising each number as I go and keeping my breathing relaxed and slow.
If I am still awake at the end, I get up. Either way, it's a nice relaxing break and I feel better after it.
That meditation where you concentrate on relaxing your body as you breath, first your toes, then feet, then ankles, then calves etc also puts me right out! You can find numerous guided versions on podcasts is you want to look it up.

Oh yes, I love a daytime nap. I work nights and before that worked shifts. I’d say exhaustion helps although I rarely nap on my break, I will sometimes doze for 10-15 minutes to give my eyes a rest.

My DC didn’t sleep through consistently until 12 months but were brilliant nappers. I usually managed to get them all asleep at the same time too so I’d lie on the sofa for a couple of hours to recharge my batteries. Same on holiday they’d be up late at night and have a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, maybe it is genetic as my parents had us all having a siesta on holidays too.

DS12 is a night owl but enjoys a nap after school a couple of days a week, he calls them power naps and he really likes them.

I can only do it when I'm tired. I just do it when I'm sitting on the settee.
I think it comes from being a single parent. I can also do the 'dozing on the settee but still able to hear the kids' thing, which I used to have to do when I was poorly but still had to look after young kids by myself.

I can power nap but only if I catch my sleep train.
When my brain is so foggy I can't think, I lie down and do some deep breathing. Then wake up 20 minutes later.
If I miss the right moment however I just can't nod off.

I can’t nap at all, even when my children were young and up and down all night. I can’t see until the night however knackered I am.
DH can sort of will himself to sleep, as soon as he gets up in the air on a plane he’s out until they wake him up to land. Says he only has to think ‘I’m tired’ put his head down and he’s asleep.

Headspace app has great sleep things on it.
I count backwards from 1000, the furthest I’ve got before drifting off is probably 960 make sure you have eaten, you’ve had a wee and that you aren’t wearing anything uncomfortable (tight belt for example).

After I give birth to my first baby I was so exhausted for the first couple of months that if you could hold my daughter for a minute I was napping in the middle of the street. My husband was coming home to have his lunch break, 30 min., believe me I was having a nap while he was eating and cuddling our baby