I have long taken a nap for lunch at work. I absolutely need it. Not to complain too much about my job, partially because I could get through it if I routinely got a good night's sleep, and I routinely don't. But more often than not, once I slip into the passenger seat and (for the wintertime; I need to open the windows during the summertime) get the blanket on top of me, I am able to power nap, and that refreshes me to get through the afternoon. Not getting enough sleep overnight helps me conk off for lunchtime. I am able to get through the afternoon without slipping into unconsciousness, but I don't know how. It really is my second wind. And I am exceedingly happy because I feel so energized from that nap.
But this is where the "I started doing this and before I knew it I've been doing it for a while!" part of this blog post comes in. I now take naps in the evening on a regular basis. I actually don't remember the last evening when I didn't do it. Maybe on a Saturday because I get to sleep in and that destroys the cycle of when my body gets tired. Anyway, while that lunchtime nap is invigorating, it doesn't get me that much energy into the evening. In fact, lately at least, once I come home and (usually) immediately have dinner with my parents, I am tired to the point whereby I can sleep. Sometimes I stay up to doomscroll, and sometimes I am able to sneak in a shower. But at some point between, say, 5:30 and 7:30, my body tells me to rest, and I do. My shortest evening nap has been around 30 minutes and my longest, such as the one I got in just this past evening, was about 3 1/2 hours, but I usually average around two, 2 1/2 hours for this nap this part of the day.
It feels great to sleep. I feel productive once I wake up at night, which is invaluable. But it does ruin a lot of my plans. The obvious ramification, of course, is that my sleep cycle is all screwed up. I usually stay up till 2 anyway, but getting a lot of sleep in the evening doesn't give me a lot of time to sneak in some rest just before I have to wake up in the morning -- which necessitates the lunchtime nap. Also, there are a lot of things I could be doing in the evening that I obviously don't do. I could be straightening out my bedroom. I could be catching up on expenses to write down in my day planner. I could send out invitations to fellow alumni in the area. (This is something I should do after I blog post this.) And, in particular, last night I really, really wanted to watch the situation comedies on ABC. The Goldbergs is a very funny show, folks! I wasn't been able to watch that and the other shows in that powerhouse lineup because I slept through it. And I think I have slept through it the past several Wednesdays, which makes me wonder for how long I have done these evening naps.
So I sleep for, like, 20 minutes at lunchtime ... then sleep for 2 1/2 hours in the evening ... and then, if I'm lucky, I sleep for three hours overnight before work. I think I can function as a normal human being on six hours of sleep. I just don't know if it's healthy for me in the long run that I get those six hours all chopped up like this every single day and night. Maybe once this pandemic ends and I have a reason to stay up in the evening I can readjust my sleep schedule to one that looks normal. Until then ... can I get along like this? Maybe I have done so for a long time and I don't even realize it!
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