The Art of Power Napping

Or is it cat napping? Whatever it is there are vast swathes of cyber space devoted to these short bursts of sleep. Some of these sites purport to be academic, informative, or just plain after your hard-earned cash. However, for me it is the art of synchronizing my sleep patterns to those of Will.

He tends to sleep for a couple of hours and then needs a good feed. A good feed is obviously a very tiring experience as it is followed by more sleep. Thus the pattern repeats. Although, I must say the last couple of days we have had an arrangement where the little fella sleeps in really short bursts of 20-30 minutes. This has serious potential to kill me in a very short period of time. I do not need a lot of sleep but I am not sure that 20-30 minute bursts are my thing either.

Hence the need to learn the power napping skills. I was thinking of looking around, learning a little bit more, and then maybe buying a tape (or the more modern version of a tape, a CD, or more modern still download something to the mp3). However, the last couple of days seems to suggest to me that I have either worked it out or I am just getting more used to the parenting thing.

So much so that I am writing this after one such power nap.

Happy holidays to all. May they be safe and prosperous.

Falling Asleep At The Wheel

This is for all of you who fly from here to there a lot!

An Air India flight that was headed to Mumbai from Dubai via Jaipur managed to overshoot Mumbai by a considerable distance and by all accounts was well on the way to Goa. So, what was the deal here? Apparently, after a successful take off, the pilots decided to engage the autopilot and then catch a few zzzzzzs. I am guessing that the intention was to wake up before it was time to start the descent.

However, it turns out that both pilots ended up grabbing a bit of shut eye at the same time. This ended up being a little bit confusing for the air traffic controllers on the ground in Mumbai who were attempting to guide the plane in for landing. Their instructions were receiving no response leading to fears that maybe the plane had been hijacked.

Finally, air traffic controllers were able to wake the pilots who then turned the plane around and headed back to Mumbai.

The flight included 100 passengers.

The investigations continue!