Hi team!

I just wanted to share another great experience I’ve had, this time with the Nap module. I’m 36, I work in Retail store support IT, and one of the requirements of the job is a 72-hour split/rotating shift every quarter. For about a year, I have struggled with this every time I have had to take a turn (and I have had extra turns, since I started full-time early on). Working the midshift, afternoon to midnight five days a week only amplifies the problem. I usually end up working Saturday afternoon and an 18+ hour shift on Sunday, then straight to the regular work week. I used to get sick every week after that rotation, and finishing the last 6 hours was always a struggle. Depression, fibromyalgia and anxiety also usually show up when this particular combination of insufficient sleep and overwork occurs. It usually takes about two weeks, at least, to recover from an oncall. I can’t afford that, as it’s the holiday season, and I am committed to having time with family this year, as I haven’t been able to spend Christmas with them for the last several years.

I have never been one for naps. Either I would oversleep and wake up with a sleep hangover, or not sleep well and wind up with a migraine, or not be able to sleep at all.

This weekend I decided to try to counter the lack of sleep by a) taking a half-day off the Friday beforehand and going to bed extremely early (thank goodness for the Sleep module, too, because otherwise I would never have been able to fall asleep 3 hours before normal bedtime!) and b) using the Nap module whenever I had a break that was long enough to take a 30 minute or longer nap. I think I took 3 naps today (Sunday). 1 was about 90 minutes, 1 was 45 min and one was about 30 minutes. When I began writing this email last night, I had 3 hours to go (usually the part where the lack of sleep really starts to be noticeable) of my 18 hours, and wasn’t feeling rundown or ill (the last 3–6 hours of Sunday night is usually when that starts to happen).

It’s Monday afternoon and I will have to start my regular shift in about an hour. I got almost a full 8 hours of sleep last night, and while I’m feeling sleepy, groggy, and tired, I’m not feeling run-down or exhausted. Part of the reason oncall recovery typically takes two weeks is getting over that feeling of being run-down and weak and exhausted. I dare say I will perhaps not have to go through that cycle this time, because naps actually work and I can actually sleep during them. I’m actually starting to enjoy them, as valuable timeouts for an often overactive and anxious brain. Now if I could just find truly comfortable headphones for sleeping in that don’t revert to monaural, rather than stereo within a week or so, for an active side sleeper…. but that is another note and an ongoing journey.

A friend just suggested “triple espresso double redbull” to counter the sleepies. My response was, “na, I’m going to take a nap instead”. Not that long ago, I would have used chocolate covered espresso beans and probably at least one, if not two, cans of cherry Mountain Dew instead, and wound up hyperactive, anxious, and unable to sleep on time. My anxiety thanks you, as well.

Say no to depression, fibromyalgia and anxiety was originally published in Pzillow Talk on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.