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Naps: sitting or lying?
I've not been a large fan of naps for many years as they used to make me feel somewhat sickened upon awakening from such.
However, having taken up some active WILD training I took my first nap in a long time yesterday during the day and noticed something curious.
I was falling asleep nearly instantly after relaxing for no more than half a minute while sitting in a chair (but a comfortable large one at that; throne-like allowing to put my head back at ease and so on). What I mean by falling asleep is rather that I was nearly losing awareness within a minute or so compared to the usual way of falling asleep in bed lying down horizontally and that taking quite some time.
So my question is: does anyone else find napping while sitting easier/swifter than when lying down?
Specifically I'm interested in using naps for WILDing as such swift sleep onset seems to be quite favourable for it.
Any input would be appreciated.
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I enjoy taking naps in a chair. Way better than a bed. Lying in a couch is also better than a bed for some reason. I find it easier to fall asleep, when there's people around me. In the livingroom for example :)
A chair is definently the easiet (in my opinion) because you useally sit in chairs for maybe 5 minutes. You are way more relaxed, when you've ben "inactive" for 5 minutes, and it's way easier to nap. When you go to your bed, you first have to calm down. It may also seem weird for some, to take a nap in a bed.
Sometimes I've found myself falling asleep when sitting in front of my computer doing nothing. Napping is funny, because you go directly into a dream and they are useally very vivid. I've tried sitting in a chair for maybe just 10 minutes, and I directly into a dream. I didn't know of lucid dreaming at the time, so I didn't really use it. Now I've got holliday, so I don't really need to nap, which is actually anoying. I didn't realise how usefull napping is for lucid dreaming :P
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I don't have any comfortable chairs in my house, so I don't do much sitting napping, but I have found that I have better naps on a couch than in a bed. For me a nap has to be different than sleeping in bed, or it doesn't work. Because of this, if I find myself forced to nap on my bed, I sleep ontop of the blanket and with my head at the wrong end of the bed. I normally do have more vivid dreams during napping, but it is always very hard to wake up from a nap. There is a period of at least 10 minutes of waking up, during which the details of dreams are forgotten.
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It depends. I do a little of both.
During the summer, I'm up for weights with the football team at 6:30. So I take a nap somewhere between about 11 am and 3 pm everyday. It just depends on the mood of the day, but really I think I'm a bigger fan of the recliner. So I guess it's only half sitting.
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Hmm, some progress and two items of news.
The good item being that I've found that I can fully relax and nearly slip off to sleep within a minute or two by counting my breaths (also found that saying "I'm dreaming" after each count doesn't disrupt the relaxation so that should be useful). This I just tested while attempting to take a nap in a chair.
The not-so-good item is that I was just trying to nap and couldn't seem to actually slip into sleep.
I kept nearly drifting into a daydream with my thoughts going independant along with the current daydream storyline for no more than a second and then snapping out of it.
The odd thing is that I don't see any hypnagogic imagery. No flashes, no light, no images, nothing. It's just conceptual thought; what I was thinking one moment becomes independant of my will and goes on evolving...then I snap out.
Any thoughts? Perhaps I still need to grasp the balance of passive withdrawal? Or could it be distractions from the outside world?
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Focus on your breath and nothing else. Don't say "I am dreaming". Just focus on your breath and relax.