Summer 2015 July 16 Thursday

78 degrees this morning,  31:28 minute walk 

Thursday already.  It is always a shock to realize how fast time goes, and little I have accomplished when comparing it to things I planned to do1

Another relatively hot day yesterday, but I spend my day on “training” in an area where it was actually too cool!    The information provided for my job was good.    I have enough experience that it answered a lot of my questions.

Sleep patterns.  I have always (since even high school if not grade school) have liked to take short “cat naps”, never very long or I don’t feel alert like I do after a short hap. 

I am trying to decide on the best pattern.  I feel that the best pattern may be my normal nights sleep, following by a relatively long nap for me (30 min or so) after my walk, and then a short nap (from very short, 5 min, to normal, around 15 min) shortly before I start work.  Then a short nap at noon (if I am in the office) and then about a 15 minute nap after I stop work and before I do much else after work.  

I have found that just closing my eyes for a minute can rejuvenate me, even without a nap, during the day.  

I remember my entire life I had the tendency to drop off into the nap world if things slowed down, I remember napping when I was in elementary school, at least in the first to fourth grade, at movies and anywhere else there wasn’t any active stimulation.  

The naps helped a lot, I remember napping in high school, and I definitely liked naps after I started full time work.  The “after work” nap was especially important, just 15 -20 minutes or so.  I normally didn’t set a time or clock, just woke.  

It is something about taking a mental break, or even to prepare for a transition to another phase of my day.  Not a lot, just a short nap.  

I was thinking about this because yesterday I tried to take several longer naps before I went to work (since I was going to be sitting in my nemesis   for napping, a cool dark area in a soft seat where I wasn’t really expected to respond).  Although it could have been the subject matter, I didn’t get sleepy at all.  However later in the day, after work,  I took several very short naps- 5 minutes-and it didn’t do a lot of good.  

I actually really enjoy naps and find they really are just like starting a new day, and I feel a lot of energy.  

While driving on a long trip I  sometimes get the “sleepies”, a very intense tiredness.  I have found if I stop and take about a 3-5 minute nap (sometimes more, but rarely), I am wide awake and alert.  Of course the secret is to be ready to pull of and take a nap.  

I really like the patio here.  One exception is when I am on the “outside patio”, the wind doesn’t allow me to read a newspaper.  Usually I can read magazines or books, but not a newspaper.  Of course I can use my computer fine.

That may be one major factor in my decision on whether to go primarily to computer/ipad in my newspaper reading, plus the fact that it eliminates my dependence on a news carrier to deliver it on time each morning.  

Of course it also mades me dependent on an internet connection and electricity also!  

I am going to make a decision about exercise, since that will affect my time and go from there.  

That’s it for now, Thursday, July 16, 2015.