I actually felt so tired today I came home early from school and took a nap but naps never actually make me feel LESS tired. I am still tired. what's even the point of napping

you gotta wake up within the right phase of the sleep cycle

how do I control what phase I wake up at.

unfortunately the only real answer is trial and error

also alarms

the long answer is that navigating naps depends on your body's ability to go to and stay asleep in the first place / how fast or slow your brain enters whatever stages of sleep. iirc common sleep wisdom is like
- a full cycle lasts 90 minutes
- stage 1 and stage 2 are easier to wake up from
- stage 3 is The Deep Sleep and harder to wake up from

so like

- less than 30 minutes is good for a quick nap (stage 1/2, never hits 3)
- roughly 90 minutes, if you can make it around that time, probably means you made it out of stage 3 sleep
- 30-80 min is the danger zone of [being in stage 3 sleep]

however. you know. if you have a sleep disorder or difficulty going to sleep etc. that's all gonna confound things. so for me like i CAN do maybe 20-30 min at most and any longer than that without exception is just [this is full sleep now]

if you are amenable to caffeine you can drink a lil caffeine -> immediately take a nap after drinking, then your body is like. napping while processing the caffeine and it's easier to wake up from a nap then (but also that does require ingesting caffeine.)

as a side note did you know adhd is closely linked to disordered sleep. fun fact

fun fact,