#531 The Big Night Nap

The Big Night Nap is any nap you take before going out for a big night.

When you nail this warm up nap perfectly you end up with a long memorable evening without dog yawns, wristwatch glances, and early cave-ins.

Now, that doesn’t mean Big Night Naps are easy to pull off. No, no, the truth is you gotta be careful in that late afternoon Napping Danger Zone:

1. The Power Nap. Top of the charts. This is the perfectly executed twenty-minute power up that fills up your energy bar and gets you ready to take on the world.

2. The Call Waiting Nap. Your plans aren’t firmed up so you leave your cell phone beside you. This forces you to pop up to answer text messages and take groggy phone calls.

3. The Choreographed Nap. This is where you convince all your friends to take a Big Night Nap, too. You know them well and realize they’ll zonk out early if they’re not in the game. Do like Parker Lewis and synchronize watches.

4. The Neverending Nap. Whoops! You were gonna do a quick snooze but your body had other plans. You groggily kick off your socks as your phone buzzes on your dresser. You’re going straight to morning now. Expect a 4:00am wake up call.

5. The Extend-O-Night Nap. You head out to someone’s house without napping but start losing steam as everyone else is revving up. So you head upstairs and take a quick zonkout on the bed full of jackets. You don’t have to be eight years old to pull this off, people. You’ll be back in the game in no time.

So… save ’em for new years, save ’em for slumber parties, save ’em for nights you need extra juice. Yes, when you go down early to get down late it’s a beautiful moment of party planning that we like to call

AWESOME!

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Photos from: here, here, and here

53 thoughts to “#531 The Big Night Nap”

  1. The Big Night Nap is truly one of the wisest investments one can make when planning a Big Night.

    An old roommate of mine is absolutely notorious for zoning out around 10 p.m., totally ready for bed before the night even gets underway. Never one to break her moratorium on naps, she was often Miss Absent from the Party. It’s a sad scene.

    Given that you don’t pull a Neverending Nap, this plan is foolproof!

  2. Number 4 is particularly disorienting… I also like to take naps during yoga class when you’re supposed to be “meditating”. Meditating, my foot.

  3. This is what I thought of when reading this entry:

    Usually this nap takes place on a Saturday. I am feeling very happy and mellow. I got stuff done around the house like laundry and cleaning. Or maybe I went garage sailing and did my recycling.

    So in the afternoon, after looking at the clock, my dog and I curl up for a nap. The phone is nearby in case a friend calls and confirms plans for a night out. So this nap just makes the day whole.

  4. Oh man, my favorite activity. #2 reoccurs frequently in my life, but the best version of #2 has to be when plans start “around nine-ish,” and it’s approximately 6pm, so you have a solid one or two hours to nap before getting up to get ready for a great night.

    I also love these because you can be the energetic life of the party and no one has to know your secret!

  5. I had myself one of these in bio class today. Just a quick #1 during the video and you’re completely charged and ready for the rest of the day. Awesome!

  6. The neverending nap haha. This happens a lot except I tell myself I will sleep a half hour at most before my next class, but then after I lay down I decide I am not going to class today. I just love it… awesome!

  7. awesome thing:

    moving into your first real place. you’ve lived with your parents, in dorms, and with friends. now you’re finally living on your own.

    everything’s in your name. all the food is your’s. the rules are your’s. you can walk around in your underwear, or naked, whenever you want. you can drink out of the carton. you can lick the knife and put it back in the jar for more. you can leave your dirty socks on the living room floor.

    it’s YOUR castle, and no one else can tell you what to do in it.

    1. That’s what I came on to comment on! Maybe it’s a geographical thing. :P

      Disco naps rock!

        1. I’m 24 and from Glasgow, Scotland. I’m determined to know where the “disco nap” originated!! lol

      1. Me too — it’s a disco nap! Even though I’m too young to remember disco. It’s just a great term. Tweet from the 1979: “Taking a disco nap then headed out with Andy and the gang to Studio 54…”

  8. I enjoy naps to much. When work is slow and I had a rough night…its power nap time.

      1. I don’t really have any big nights anymore so I don’t take big night naps. :-(

      2. The only time I’m up that late is New Years but I can handle that without a nap and Black Friday. Get up on Thanksgiving do my thing with the family then its off to my bff’s house to stay up all night and then go shopping. Still don’t take a nap there even though I’m awake for like 36 hours straight.

  9. Fantastic! I am a firm believer in naps of any kind, however the “Big Night Nap” is a skillfully used weapon when it comes to partying hard. Great tool to use at the cottage too! Party all day, nap from 6pm to 8pm and then watch out baby!

  10. My friends and I specialized in this in undergrad. Having been blessed with living in a city (New Orleans) where the clubs/bars don’t close, you go home, take a night nap, at head out around 12am.

  11. I am an absolutely believer in the #5 Extend-O-Night Nap! Especially for parties that are clearly going to go past 3:00 or 4:00 AM, there’s nothing quite like stumbling your tipsy butt upstairs, finding your host’s guest/storage/hobby room, turning off the light and closing the door, and dozily listening to the muted-through-floorboards party for 45 minutes. Once you’re feeling a little more sober and a little more perky, it’s time to head back downstairs and act like you never disappeared!

  12. I know I’ve accused you of stalking before, but it’s getting serious now!! I was heading out for a late night and decided to take a small nap first. I woke up, rolled over to turn my netbook on to my brain moving and read this post.

    Get out of my head!! =)

  13. That picture of the couch nap is so me on Saturday afternoons when I have big plans! I don’t do that as much anymore, and I kinda miss it… because it was AWESOME!

  14. Eh, with waking up at 4am for school and spending about two hours on woozy public transit each day, I wish wish wish wish I could just take a nap and somehow not lose that time from my day.

    I tried napping a few times, but it puts me in such a mood: irate, disoriented and very nauseous. Oh well.

  15. I was just on a cruise and everyday my friends and I would take a power nap to be ready to party all night and tthen still be at the island at 9am!

    I’ve also had plenty of choreographed naps but we tend to be all together and we fall asleep on each other using everyone of us as pillows.

  16. I remember when I was younger the big night naps I used to take before my parents would take my sister and I to a musical performance. It was always a special occasion and required my sis and I to not be cranky. There’s always a certain, positive association I have with afternoon naps because of this.

  17. My friends and I refer to this as the “disco nap” because then you are rested enough to DANCE all night long!

  18. Did this allll the time in college!! Go to school all day, eat a little dinner take a nap then wake up ready for the bar :)

  19. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m awake or sleeping.

    Scary, huh? But I’m an awesome ninja so I hope I was awake.

  20. I have not ever napped since I was about 3; ok. once! and I don’t ever sleep in, not ever!
    I am getting tired.

  21. WOOHOOO GO BIG NIGHT SLEEPS!!! THEY’RE THE AWESOMEST EVER :) except that you’re always too excited to sleep. So you end up sleeping late anyway :D

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