BigDave -thank you for condoning the 'power nap'. I feel much better about it now. I was so stressed out yesterday and couldn't believe I went to sleep rather than tackle my work load head on. But you're right felt much better after a snooze and probably made up for the time spent asleep in terms of productivity later. Long live the afternoon snooze.

i'm a huge fan of the power nap! i get the 2-3pm slump so i may as well sleep through it than stair at my screen then panick about how much work i'm not doing. I also had a 'im so depressed i want to quit and live a normal life' recently, in month 28 and had spent a month just sitting stairing into screen panicking about how much i had to do and how late my chapter was. i had an honest meeting with my super and she was great really supportive, i'm now slowly building up my confidence and speed so fingers crossed i'll make it..

Glad to hear its all seeming a bit better lilliput

I came a cross this this morning

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_he_me/france_naps_at_work

Its seems the French have the right idea!

I can never nap unless really ill and even then it makes me feel worse.

My mum says I was really annoying when I was little as I would never take a nap in the afternoon.

Mind you, I never work in the evenings and at night unless its really urgent and running out of time.

I agree with you ULUG about the 14 month thing. Past couple of months I have been feeling really demotivated but luckily things have just picked up.

Four months in now and got really down over christmas. Hardly a day went by when I didnt think of quitting. Financial pressure is really intense and if I'd took a job instead of the PhD We would be so much better off. Felt guilty I was making the family suffer again because of my study. But today was a good day and I feel very motivated so its ok. To me its a day by day thing and if I can just get through each one I will cope with the full three years (or more!!)