Nap like me (part 1): creative ways to fit in that nap

As I’ve mentioned previously, I take two 25 minute naps each day (one at noon and one at 3 pm) and I take them very seriously.  This is one of the main ways that I cope with Narcolepsy, and it is this that allows me to lead a normal life. 

For me, these naps are essential, like air or food or water.  Without them, I would probably sleep most of the day and/ or be extremely tired, often nodding off and fighting to stay awake.  I would have serious trouble getting things done, not to mention driving a car or walking down a flight of stairs.  Without them, I simply would not be myself: overly emotional, slow both mentally and physically, and seriously tired.

I don’t feel like I have a choice, when it comes to my naps.  It’s a necessity.

For me, noon is not lunchtime but ‘time to squeeze in a nap’ time.  Lunch can wait a bit, my nap cannot – at least it cannot wait more than a short period of time without me paying a very high price.  I may not always be perfect about my naps (for example, sometimes I’m bad and sleep longer than my designated timeframe), but i am generally pretty good about it, especially if there is something happening afterwards the makes it especially important that I be awake, alert and at my best.

Here is a list of some of the strangest and most uncomfortable ways I’ve managed to fit in a nap over the years:

1. At an amusement park: I took a nap on a bench once, with my dad waking me up
2. At the zoo: Multiple times I’ve taken a nap lying on a bench – or putting my head down on a picnic table, with my head on a sweater/jacket.  I did this once with my sister and once with my husband.
3. Before a high school tennis match: I once took a nap lying on the pavement (!) next to the tennis courts with my head on a sweater before a junior varsity tennis match.  (We had an away match and for some reason I hadn’t been able to take a nap before we got there…).  As you can imagine, this one was not very comfortable.  I cringe just thinking about it.
4. During lunch break at a Model United Nations Conference (at another school) in high school: One time I had to take a nap curled up in my formal attire in an auditorium seat (kind of like the ones in movie theaters).  The auditorium was empty, it was lunch time, and I needed my nap: but I can tell you it’s no small feat pulling this one off, considering that I was wearing a very very short skirt.  lol.
5. On a high school trip with a bunch of kids to Italy (during the summer): I didn’t know these people very well, so I had to make do, as far as my naps went (as we were a very large group).  I actually put my head down on the table of one Italian restaurant and slept while we waited for our pizza to arrive.  This is not a very fond memory: these people were not my close friends, and they continued to talk and drink and so forth all around me while I was trying to sleep.
6. At my wedding: I took my noon nap on the table of the restaurant during the champagne reception, as you may remember from my first post.
7. During a 6 week cultural, leadership and business program at my university during the summer: I had to take a nap in a free meeting room in the business center with a “bed” made of two chairs (i.e. my head and shoulders on one chair and everything else on the other).  NOT very fun – and I had to do this many times (whenever we had days with lots of people coming to speak with us).  Unfortunately, this was the only way we could come up with, but fortunately I only had to do this for my noon nap.
8. On a trip with my then boyfriend (now husband) to Budapest, where my husband proposed: I was completely exhausted and we couldn’t find anywhere decent for me to take a nap, so I finally ended up taking nap on a grassy stretch next to the side walk with my head on one of our jacket and the other either on the ground or covering me (it wasn’t very cold).  I think we had got caught up in seeing stuff, to the point that I was breaking down from not having a nap – so we just stopped.
9. In an art museum: on a bench with my head on my husband’s shoulder, with him keeping time.
10. In IKEA in Berlin, waiting in the area where you arrange your stuff to be delivered: We had been there for many hours (this was when we had just moved here) and I was desperately in need of a nap.  There just happened to be large bed display right there, so I kind of half laid down (my feet on the floor, but I was lying back).  Unfortunately, two different people thought this was really strange and woke me up.  A little boy kept coming up to me and speaking German and I knew basically no German and my husband was away for a moment.  I think he thought maybe I was sick or something, I don’t know (I couldn’t understand).  Then an employee came up to me and woke me up (after I was sleeping for, oh, 6 minutes) to ask me if I was sick or what have you.  I finally figured it out: the employee was worried that I had fainted (lol)!  Didn’t it occur to them that maybe I’m just waiting and really tired?  I was quite annoyed. 

Some of these aren’t THAT strange, but they are not things that your average person does (at least, I don’t think they do).  The way I see it: sometimes you just need to take a nap, and you have to make do.  So what if strangers think I’m weird or sick or what have you, so long as they leave me alone.

I should note that if you ever want to try such napping strategies as these, it’s best if you have someone sitting with you so other people will leave you alone (or if they insist on checking on you, this person can explain that yes, the sleeping woman is fine, she just needs a short nap because she has a sleep disorder). 

I would especially recommend you do this with another person if you are here in Germany.  Most of the times that I’ve tried to take a nap on a table by myself in cafés or restaurants here in Germany an employee has bothered me to see if I’m sick or what is wrong.  A few times I had trouble understanding why they were waking me up (I didn’t understand why they were waking me even after I had explained what I was doing), but I think they just were not okay with me sleeping for a little bit, even though I was a paying customer.  How annoying.

It’s occurred to me a few times that perhaps if I want to do this I should put up a little standing sign in German- or even better- German AND English.  It would read: “Hello.  I am currently taking a 25 minute nap here on the table because I have a sleep disorder called Narcolepsy.  Please leave me alone.  I am not sick/I have not fainted/etc.  Thank you, sleeping woman.”

Lol.  Don’t worry, I’m only half serious.  :-)  If I thought such a sign would work, I would definitely try it, but I think it would mainly cause lots of people to come near me in order to read the sign, which would make it difficult for me to take a nap.  In other words, it probably wouldn’t help much.

Do you nap in strange places?  Where are some of the more unusual places you’ve slept?

(P.S. Just so you are aware, unless I mention otherwise, you can assume that the pictures that go with each post are not my own (i.e. the sleeping woman is not me.)