The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I developed a daily nap habit during the pandemic (wfh) that I would like to break. I always liked a weekend nap but this is ridiculous. I don't think this is actually "need for sleep" based because it happens regardless of the actual amount of sleep I get the night before and unlike at night it often takes quite a while to fall asleep. I'm sick of wasting 2 hours every afternoon so I pulled out the ole Atomic Habits to approach the problem anew. Now is a good time to tackle this as I recently moved so that is a good time to create new habits.
Things I've tried:
Most stuff on the internet treats this like a sleep problem but it really isn't. It tends to happen regardless of sleep quantity and quality. It also happens whether or not I ate lunch so it isn't that. Naps are a great breaker of anxious or depressed states for me, so part of what I'm craving is that emotional reset (hence starting in the pandemic), but the daily nap happens regardless of mood.
Ok atomic habits says every habit has a cue, craving, response, reward.
Cues: bored, start mid-afternoon energy slump, craving emotional security, seeing it is 1 or 2 on the clock, glimpse beautiful cool sheets (which cues are most important?)
Craving: craving to nap wants only to nap and cannot be logicked to "go for a walk" (I walk enough taking the dog out 4x a day, thank you) or "go to the gym" as an alternative. Craving-self will not turn on an alarm to take an insufficient nap or similar nap limiting behaviors. I can take a book to the bed with me but reading and sleeping go together so this almost never prevents sleep.
Response/Reward: nap of 1-2.5 hours, emotional reset, possibly broken by having to pee because coffee.
So for some habits you can try to make them unappealing, but I don't want to do anything to undermine my desire for sleep in general. Instead I think we want to add some points of friction and set up an alternative behavior for that time of day.
Friction: close bedroom door and block it with laundry basket
Alternative: sit down in living room at first sign of craving and watch specific new tv show I haven't seen, telling craving self this is just a 45 minute delay to nap
Alternative: drink diet soda at 1-2pm rather than with lunch
Any other ideas?
I don't have any inclination to sleep in the middle of the day, but if I wanted to spend an hour doing something where I was sure I wouldn't inadvertently fall asleep I'd either go for a run or play some vidya.
Running I can understand, but games? Even the best can put me to sleep if I’m actually tired.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link