Right now, you may be feeling that this napping task is insurmountable. You may feel overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious and a little bit drunk. That’s fine, assuming that you’re reading this after noon.

The point is, the first stage to achieving any goal is starting. Do you think Neil Armstrong was able to walk on the moon by crawling everywhere he went? Same goes for you. Too many times, I hear people complaining that: “I really wish I could take naps, but once I’m up, I’m up.” That’s just silly. I just took two naps while writing the first sentence of this article. The problem here stems from one of two issues: You haven’t taken a nap since kindergarten or you’re getting too much sleep. If you really struggle with this, try staying up for three days straight and see if you still struggle.

Step 1:
Find a secure, comfortable napping location. I can’t overemphasize the value of this first step. Consistency in napping is vital to a pleasant experience at every stage. The natural choice would be your own bed, but not a necessity. Maybe you or a friend own a very cozy couch, or you have a boring and overly talkative boyfriend/girlfriend who also has a nice bed. Flexibility is fine here because step 2 overrules step 1.

Step 2:
Nail down a regular nap schedule. Stick to it. Routines are crucial when establishing any habit, especially a nap. Leave yourself some flex time on both sides, and make sure you are not in a rushed or stressful mood, or are too hungry. It will probably take all of three days before your body is virtually asleep before you even hit your nap time. One final word of advice on this step: Once you’re settled into the routine, don’t try to skip a day, or your body will punish you. Ignore this rule at your own peril.

Step 3:
 Set nap duration. Once you have your nap schedule blocked, set an allotted time, or how long you will be sleeping for. I would suggest somewhere in the range of 25 to 45 minutes. Any shorter, and you may not really fall asleep, but longer, and you will come out more tired and be highly tempted to stretch it into a two or three hour affair that leave you wondering where your day went.

Step 4:
 Ensure the proper sleep environment. Different people have different methods of sleeping. Personally, I demand silence and lights out. I don’t feel that this is unreasonable. However, if you need techno music with break-dancing clowns, that’s also reasonable. Don’t let anything else define your world of sleep. Also, the working roommate must defer to the sleeping one. Work can be done elsewhere, sleep cannot.

Step 5:
Prepare a regular, easy-going wake up procedure. There are certain times that you should avoid talking to other people: if they are in the middle of a fight, if they just found out they’re living in Kissam or if they just woke up. Be kind to yourself when you wake up. Have something tasty to eat, watch some TV and trick yourself into thinking that you’ll go to bed early that night.



—Justin Poythress is a senior in Peabody College. He can be reached at j.poythress@vanderbilt.edu.