Whenever I snooze at unusual times — in other words, not at night, during my usual sleep time —_I wake up feeling completely out of it. My mouth and eyes are sticky, I’m headachy/light-headed. Usually, the feeling only goes away with time. In other words, washing my face, flushing my eyes with water, or drinking coffee or Coke doesn’t help.
What’s up?
Ah- how long do you nap? A nap needs to be between 20>30 minutes- no longer. Any longer, and you get into deeper sleep cycles, and your body wants 4 hours + of that type of sleep.
However, a 20 min nap in the afternoon- where you doze but don’t fall hard alseep- is extremely refreshing. I highly recommend it!
The Master’s take on it.
Good one…I get that way, too. But I can’t really help you with an answer. Interestingly, my wife can sleep any time, any place, and always feel better for it.
Honestly, I can shake a hangover with more ease… and would rather.
I’ll agree with DrDeth, any more than 15-20 minutes and I feel like crap. But if I get up after just a short nap, I feel refreshed. The problem, however, is waking up after 15-20 minutes and not rolling right back over to sleep again!
I also agree with DrDeth, BUT I’ve read that if you stretch it out to an hour and a half then you won’t be so groggy. I know that if I take an hour nap, I’ll feel like crap. But if I take an 1 1/2 then all is good 
.
Also, how soon after eating do you sleep? For me, if I fall asleep too soon after eating lunch I’ll wake up with a mild headache (not to mention the strange dreams).
[this is my second post here ]
The problem is stages of sleep. There are four stages, ranging from light sleep down to physical regenerative sleep (stage 4).
When you go to sleep, your body begins at stage 1 and will continue to stage 4 if you let it. For most people it takes about an hour to reach this stage. Once you reach stage 3 or 4 your body thinks it is getting a full night’s sleep and is in full regenerative mode. If you wake up while in stage 3 or stage 4 sleep you will feel horrible. To prevent this try to limit your nap to no longer than 30 minutes. Set an alarm if you have to.
What RadioOrange has experienced (by extending his naps to 90 minutes) is waking up while the body is cycling between sleep stages. The full sleep cycle has the body going all the way into stage 4 sleep, moving back up to stage 1, then back down to stage 4 (for a shorter time), then back up, down to only stage 3, etc. This continues through the night until the body is only cycling between stages 1 and 2. Stage 1 sleep is Rapid Eye Movement (REM, or dream) sleep.
Go here for a pretty concise article on the subject. There is a chart on that page - compare your nap time to the sleep cycles on that chart and you’ll find out why you feel so lousy after a “bad” nap!
And that should be a “his or her” welcome to RadioOrange!
I never nap for more than 20-30 minutes, anyway. That seems to fit within what is being described as the safe zone. But I still feel funky.
Many moons ago, there was a thread about life’s great pleasures. My contribution was “a nap.”
Sorry to hear that they funk you up. Me? 20 minutes of shut eye and I’m ready to take on the world.
Hey, pilot141, thanks for that link. I can’t take naps because I always totally crash out for around three hours (probably means I need more sleep in general) and the sleep cycle chart explains why it’s almost always three hours…
Welcome to radiorange, and he is also correct- but most need more than 90minutes- I envy him(?) that.
ski- try napping in a position other than what you usually sleep in. I sleep on my side, but nap on my back. Seems to work for me.