I was rather tired after my long core sleep this morning (from about 2 AM to when I dragged myself out of bed around 7), and looked forward to attempting my midday nap. I remembered to bring a blanket with me, and intended to try sleeping in my car. It was cloudy, though still hot, but I wanted to give sleeping in the car another go anyway. I had previously attempted sleeping in the backseat of the car sans pillow or blanket. I rolled up some coats and a winter scarf that I always leave in the car to make a sort of pillow, but it was just too bright for me to really drift off, so I used a black shawl that was also there to try to cover up with. This did not work well at all, as it increased the temperature, and I couldn't find a way to put it over my face without feeling stuffy. I couldn't just blindfold myself with it like I sometimes do with one of my lighter scarves. Also, I felt kind of like someone might look in the window at me. I can't say exactly why this bothers me, but it does.
So, today, I decided to try to find a more secluded parking spot, and my intention was to set up a blanket fort in the back seat to partially block the light and any people that I imagined might be trying to spy on that poor student napping in the car. When I arrived at my usual parking lot, all of the more secluded spots were gone, and I was forced to choose between driving to another parking lot and having a long walk back to my building, or parallel parking by the sidewalk. I decided I'd either disregard my paranoia or find other parking arrangements when it came time ot nap, and I opted to practice my rarely-needed parallel parking skills, and left my good work there to be admired while I went in to class. When I came back, a good spot had opened up in an area where fewer people parked, and so I hastily moved there, cracked the windows to try to catch a breeze, draped my blanket across the backseat, and climbed under to try to nap.
Now, I don't know if my blanket fort is less conspicuous than simply napping in the seat -- it might cause more curiosity for it's unconvential nature, and people wondering what's under there, rather than being able to immediately see that, oh, it's just someone sleeping. However, it did do the trick of giving me a feeling of privacy and blocking some of the light, while not suffocating me or making it unbearably hot. My blanket didn't block all of the light, probably because it was thin and light blue, but I hope that it at least reflected some of the heat. Another color might be more light-absorbing, but it'd also be heat absorbing. After I was able to quiet down my brain a bit, I had a brief, light sleep, in which I actually dreamed (and woke myself up in the process by dreaming that I was in bed and oversleeping). After that, I began to feel more hot and found that I probably wasn't going to go back to sleep easily. I decided to head inside and try another napping spot I had spied previously, but which seemed too good to work.
There's a classroom which has a couch in it, much to the displeasure of some professors, as students will go to sleep during class on it. Now, this room is usually occupied all day long, but I've noticed that there don't seem to be as many classes scheduled for it this term. I had been kind of keeping my eye on it to see when it was free, and it seems to be during the time that I'd take my midday nap, and possibly later in the day as well. I have actually laid down on this couch before, when I was really desperate for some rest. It's a good spot to rest, as it's just private enough. The only problem I had with it (aside from the potential embarassment of having someone come in and wake me up mid-nap) is that the couch is really, really old and worn. It doesn't look dirty, but in a building full of American students, you know it is. Why? They put their feet up on everything. When I came into class this morning, there was a guy who had his feet up on the armrest of the chair next to him. This bothers me not only because it's dirty, but because it's disrespectful -- not to the object itself, but to the people who use the object. If you don't show any concern for the cleanliness of objects that others use, you are indirectly showing no concern for the people who depend on using those objects. I don't know, maybe these kids have never thought about it, or maybe they treat their own stuff like this at home. I've seen people doing stuff like jumping on their couch or sleeping in their bed with their shoes on in sitcoms and reality shows, but I thought this was just people acting abnormal in front of a camera, not wanting to take the time to take their shoes off, whatever. Who knows, maybe they really do act like that all the time. I think that's crazy, though.
Anyway, my only real reservation about the couch was that I knew it'd probably be dirty. However, I tried to get comfortable sitting up on it, and succeeded in doing so, to finish out the duration of my nap. It was rather nice, and I intend to nap there again, I think. But I might bring my scarf with me to rest my head on, just to ease my concerns about hidden dirt and mold in the couch's fabric. The room itself was very peaceful, convenient, and perfect for a nap. It probably won't be available every time I want a nap, but maybe I can use it most days.
I also discovered that I like waking up to my cellphone's alarm much better than my alarm at home. I really like my alarm clock for it's non-alarm features, and the multitude of alarms I can set on it. However, the alarm sound is really grating, it's loud (with no volume control), and I've come to dread it to the point where I've occasionally had trouble settling down for a short nap with it. I hadn't used my cellphone's alarm much before, but I discovered that I can set some rather pleasant chirps on it that are just disturbing enough to wake me, and I can set the volume at anything from very soft to overly loud. I should probably start using this as my alarm at home. It would solve the problem of worrying about whether my alarm wakes anyone else up, as well. I don't think my alarm clock is loud enough to wake up someone asleep in another bedroom, but you can hear it from outside my room, so maybe someone could hear it in the still of night. Anyway, I'll give the cellphone a try for a while, and see if I can continue to avoid that dread-reflex that other alarms give me.
Oh, I also felt very refreshed after my short naps today, and wasn't fatigued during the afternoon. I was in a good mood and had no trouble with staying alert and working for most of the rest of the day. Not at all how I felt after my core sleep. Although I feel like the idea of a core sleep is good for health reasons, as it provides an abundant time in which to experience the benefits of multiple phases of sleep, it is really, really hard for me to wake up from a long nap/short core sleep. I'm debating whether I should continue trying to work with it and give it a fair trial, or if I should try all short naps again. I do think less than 1 hour is my optimal nap time. But if I lived off of naps alone, I'd probably be dogged by worries about whether I'm getting enough sleep. I guess this is a dilemma I won't solve until I figure out which is worse, over- or under-sleeping.
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