Over the past few months, writing this blog on a daily basis has been fun, enlightening, and utterly exhausting. There are days when the writing is easy, but also days when it is not. I usually start writing only after I’ve gotten home from work, eaten, and watched my favorite trashy TV shows: most of the time, this is well after 11 pm. Once I start writing, I must deal with frequent writer’s block and the distraction of Food Network’s late-night programming. Thus, I’m often still awake past 2 am, trying to find pictures of aliens that resemble Joan Rivers’ face, while learning about how raisins are made on Unwrapped.
Needless to say, sleeping is a luxury, and I’m sure that I’m not the only insomniac with a late-night affinity for Marc Summers. But, I’ve made it my pre-New Year’s resolution to start sleeping more, whenever I can get it. It may be at home, at work, or at dinner with friends, but I’m going to get my 8 hours of sleep each night. And given that the majority of my day is spent at work, I need some creative ways to pull some shut-eye at the office…
Here are some techniques that have been recommended to me by others:
- Bathroom naps: Stake out the biggest stall, put down a toilet seat cover, and find a roll of Charmin to rest your head on.
- Pros: You can always blame your extended absence on food poisoning, or, if you are a woman, “female matters”.
- Cons: You really don’t want to experience the full range of bodily functions that may occur during 20 minutes in the workplace bathroom. After-lunch bathroom naps are definitely not recommended.
- Car naps: Curl up in the back seat of your car and sleep off an hour… or two.
- Pros: Unlike the bathroom stall, at least you know all the business that has gone down in your back seat.
- Cons: Death. If you’re parked in a garage, there’s always the slight chance that you could suffer carbon monoxide poisoning and die. And that would be a rather embarrassing way to go.
- Under your desk naps: Set up some paper stacks to serve as pillows, and climb on under there.
- Pros: Minimal effort; you don’t have to walk down the hall to the bathroom, or make a trip to the parking garage. Instead, your nap space is right in front of you.
- Cons: Highest likelihood of getting caught, and unless you’re built like a Chinese gymnast, it may get a little uncomfortable down there.
My recommendation? Even with high gastronomic activity in adjacent stalls, I think that bathroom naps offer the best work-sleep that you can get. It’s mostly quiet, convenient, and relatively comfortable–in the right position, it’s like sleeping on the window seat of a plane. Plus, the toxins in the bathroom are probably less dangerous than the ones in the parking garage. And with the size of the stall, there’s always the possibility of upgrading your nap space with a twin-size Aerobed.
So, given that I’m pontificating about bathroom spaces (…again), I guess you can tell how severe my writer’s block was tonight. Yup, it’s getting pretty late… I’m definitely bringing in a travel pillow tomorrow, to go along with my bad case of “food poisoning.”
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