Feeling depressed after taking a nap

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I just woke from a nap, a very fitful nap, and I'm feeling depressed. I'm reminded about how I used to feel after taking a nap when I was a child.

I'd either wake up feeling sick, depressed, sad. I usually feel hot and sweat, and have a feeling that is like I want to fight the urge to take the nap, but I am genuinely tired. I probably fight it because I've learned how I am after I wake up. I'm overcome with a feeling that I'm missing out on something, or like life is passing me by. It's worse when there is something going on in the background, people interacting or with the television on. My emotions are highened, and simple things could bring me to tears, like the time I was half asleep and I heard a commercial for vacations to Disney world, and it just felt mocking because I knew that I'd never be able to go.

I've just started to feel this way again, without the sadness, I'm pretty sure I won't feel that anymore. This has puzzled me a great deal and while doing an internet search, I see I'm not the only person to feel this way:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/health-wellness/829683-feeling-strange-after-daytime-naps.html

This person sounds like he feel's the same way I do, but I don't belong to that board, so I'm telling my story here.

I always feel horrible after taking a nap too. A mixture of guilt, anxiety, slobbishness and shame.

Now, however tired I am, however bad my mouth tastes, however bloodshot my eyes are and however many times I conspicuously fall asleep and jerk awake again on the bus, I try to wait until at least nine o'clock in the evening to go to sleep. It's worth it, because I always sleep really well on such occasions, whereas a day broken up by a nap will conclude at three or four o'clock the following morning with me falling fitfully asleep in a state of agitation at my lack of organisation and productivity.

My cats sleep almost all day, and are perfectly cheerful - I don't know how they do it.

Could the problem be the length of your nap?
For me, when I nap for more than 20 or 30 min I wake up feeling really crap.
Have you heard about polyphasic sleep?? If not, you may find it interesting wiki

Yeah, kind of like the day is shot or something (even though it's really not!)

Sometimes if I have a social event lined up that helps. But I can't fake it. It has to be something I'm genuinely looking forward to and something I genuinely have realistic hope for (where it's at least going to be interesting and outside chance might meet someone new and interesting)

When it really hits me, is when I don't have anything lined up for that night and nothing for the whole next day either. That does hurts. And in the recent past, weekends have been tough, too.

YES. Very yes. The last time I've slept in the middle of the day was when I had my wisdom teeth removed, for obvious reasons. Before that, not in years. I only sleep when I lay down in bed at night. My experience with naps was waking up feeling horrible, depressed, and this nagging feeling that I've missed something. It's just not something I can do.

I only feel like that if I nap in the afternoon, and find myself waking close to sunset. That really bums me out and I feel forlorn and depressed for some reason.

I used to feel vaguely guilty after taking a nap and that made me feel depressed but I don't anymore. I felt like it meant I was lazy. I have always felt drained in the afternoon and I believe it's just the way I'm wired. I'm a little groggy when I wake up, but overall it helps my productivity. I think they actually recommend naps as beneficial for everyone. I love naps. The cat always joins me too.

My naps are generally an hour or less, but I only nap once a week, maybe less than that.

I think I felt that way when I was little because there was really nothing to do, so I really was missing out on life. I was pretty sheltered.

So Polyphasic Sleep is sort of like the Uberman Sleep Schedule? lol

http://www.ehow.com/how_2136442_impleme ... edule.html

(Basically you have 30 min naps every 3 hours or so, and you end up feeling rested with only 3 hours of sleep a day)

I seen the uberman schedule, I think I'd lose my mind on that. LOL I like how it's called uberman. I bet the name alone makes people want to try it out.

I've thought about trying it out, but the amount of planning you'd need it too stressful to me. It seems it'd be easiest if you didn't have a large social life, and you worked when you wanted...

I don't see how it could be beneficial except for experimenting with yourself. Seems like sleep and wake would melt into each other.

The other thing from reading it is that when you sleep a normal 6-8 hours, your body goes through 5 stages of sleep. The 5th one (REM) is the most beneficial for your mind. So by switching to this sleep schedule, you're forcing yourself to automatically drop in to REM sleep when you take your nap. However, what about the other stages? Like what if you're sick, then you're not getting enough rest to help the rest of your body.

That's what I mean, if your cutting out your theta sleep stage, which is from what I understand, the sleep you need to recover physically, then what good is getting REM sleep to rejuvenate your mind, unless you were planning to be a living Buddha.

But it's a cool idea, sleep only 3 hours a day...you'd get 35 extra hours a week!

from article posted in OP:

hm. i feel like that a lot! but yes, i have similar .. nap-hangovers?