Remember when you were a kid and absolutely hated having to take a nap every day? I was so against napping that I convinced my parents I didn’t need such frivolity in my life at an unreasonably early age. I remember feeling SO proud of myself for being such a “grown up” and not requiring any extra sleep during the day. HA! What a fool I was. I’m sorry I was so quick to toss you aside, naps. Sometimes you just don’t know how good something is until it’s gone.
Times have changed and these days I’m lucky if I get seven hours of sleep a night. I’m not even talking about seven good hours of sleep. Lately it has been seven hours of sleep interrupted by my new downstairs neighbor returning home from work (or wherever) at 2:00 AM. Every night she takes to her patio for her nightly cigarette and proceeds to talk loudly about her life and laugh like a hyena. And every night those two noises reverberate off our courtyard walls, landing in my bedroom. Right around the time she crawls into bed I’m getting up for work.
Needless to say sleep has been scarce for me and it has been ROUGH, particularly since I have always been somebody who needs a minimum of eight hours of sleep a night. The only good thing about this new found lack of sleep is that I have reintroduced napping into my life on weekends and guys, I’m loving it. In fact, I’m becoming a bit of a napping fanatic so when Casper, an innovative company that offers high quality mattresses, sheets and pillows, contacted me ahead of March 14th’s National Nap Day to share some of my favorite napping tips and tricks it seemed like a match made in (napping) heaven.
My Formula for the Perfect Nap
- A cool room: I sleep my best, whether napping during the day or in bed at night, in a room that is kept right around 70 degrees. I actually prefer even cooler if possible! I love it being cold enough that I can bundle up under the covers. I fall asleep MUCH faster that way.
- Aromatherapy: Placing drops of lavender essential oil on my pulse points immediately relaxes me and gets me nap-ready.
- Earplugs and an eye cover: It can be challenging to block out daylight and outside noises during the day, that is why these items are especially essential when napping.
- White noise: Even though I sleep with earplugs I also like to use a white noise machine to further block out the world around me. If you don’t have a white noise machine you can download all kinds of free iPhone apps. I love using Relax Melodies, particularly the “Oscillating Fan” option.
Along with my own suggestions, Casper rounded up some of their best tips for a successful napping experience in the below graphic. They included some gems I was previously unaware of…did you know that drinking coffee directly before you nap is actually a good idea? Contrary to popular belief, the caffeine won’t immediately kick in and keep you awake. It will actually serve as an alarm clock and rouse your body 20-30 minutes later. Who knew?
With this last week being possibly the busiest week of my career thus far, you’d better believe I’m going to be testing these tips out during some epic naps this weekend. What are your favorite napping tips and tricks?
+ This post was in collaboration with Casper.