Fitting naps into the school day (Part 1): elementary and middle school

I thought it would be worth touching on the topic of fitting a nap – or naps – into the school day, as for many years this was a very important topic for me.  My sleep doctor had told me to take one 15 – 25 minute nap at noon and one at 3 pm, however, as I recall it it was my mother and I who came up with ways to make this happen.  I wasn’t always easy to accomplish, and it meant that I had to do some things that other kids never did, but it was worth it.

I dealt with my naps in two very different ways during elementary school and part of middle school.  In 4th grade, having just been diagnosed with Narcolepsy, we dealt with my need for a noontime nap largely without help from my (public) school.  Whereas, in 5th and 6th grade, I went to a private school and the school was highly involved in meeting my need for a mid-day nap.

 

• 4th grade:  In 4th grade (back when we still lived in California), I would skip lunch recess every day and take a 25 minute nap against the window with a pillow in the school parking lot.  I think lunch might have gotten out at 12:30 pm, and I would sneak off to the parking lot and nap in my mom’s car, which she would bring just for my naptime.  This worked okay, except for the fact that I was constantly worried about being “found out.”  What if one of the other kids saw me asleep in my mom’s car in the parking lot?, I would worry.  What if people found out somehow?  So out of fear of what other kids might say or think, I didn’t tell anyone but my closest friends what I was doing (and then I would only tell them if I had to take a nap while I was hanging out with them at my house or theirs).
• 5th and 6th grade: In5th and 6th grade I attended private  school because my mother thought I needed the special accommodation because of my Narcolepsy (my other two siblings went to public school).  The setup was that every day I would leave the sit down lunch we would have (assigned tables, prayer and all) after I finished (skipping dessert, which took some time) and take a 25 minute nap in the nurse’s office.  This worked well, as the nurse would wake me up and it was usually very quiet.  I had a bed and my own pillow and blanket, which was nice.  Unfortunately, missing dessert only bought me maybe 20 minutes, so I was sometimes late to the class after lunch.  One year I had P.E. after lunch, with the gym a significant walk away, so I was always late for that and would change my clothes in the nurse’s office.  The other year I had math afterward lunch, but I could usually make it just as it was starting.  However, like in 4th grade I didn’t tell anyone but my teachers why I was showing up to things late and leaving things early because I was very secretive about my Narcolepsy.  No one ever talked about it, but obviously the other kids had to be wondering what was going on with me.  I wonder now what people thought I was up to during part of lunch time, although perhaps they found out that I was taking a nap… (as anyone who walked into the nurse’s office during lunch would see me lying down).

Dealing with fitting a nap in during the school day is not easy, but I always found that schools and teachers were happy to help me deal with this (and I attended a whole bunch of different schools).  And I’ve found that people in general are often very willing to help, provided that they know what you need and why you need it.  For example, because I left lunch earlier than everyone else, one of the people who cooked the food for the sit-down lunch would always tell me what the dessert was that day at the beginning of the meal and then if I wanted it they would bring it out early just for me. 

It takes some creativity… and you have to ask for help, but it’s completely doable to fit in a short nap around lunchtime at school.

Has anyone else figured out a way to fit in a nap (or naps) during the school day?

I will cover 7th grade through college in future posts.