A few weeks ago, I had a rare moment where all of my inside chores were done, work was finished for the day, the kids were all at activities for a few hours, the dogs were well exercised, and because it was pouring rain out, I couldn’t do anything outside.

I decided to do something that I don’t do very often: take a nap.

There is not much in this world that is better than a good nap. I don’t take them very often anymore, mainly because I have a hard enough time sleeping and napping just gives me another excuse to put it off when I should be doing it.

Sleep is my Achilles heel. When I don’t get enough of it, I’m cranky, irritated by absolutely everything, have zero patience and no motivation. Unfortunately, it has been years since I’ve had enough of it, and pretty much everything around me has suffered for it.

However, knowing you need sleep and actually getting it are two very different things.

Avoiding sleep has been a habit for me since I was little and would hide a flashlight under the bed to read with long after everyone else in the house had gone to bed.

Over the years, I’ve come to enjoy the quiet late night or early morning hours, and you would think that having a regular nap routine might assist that, and for a long time, it did.

However, as life has changed, so has my ability to nap.

There is always something else that could or should be getting done. The dogs have a very similar schedule to toddlers. I need to exercise them well to get them to settle down for a good nap, and by the time I get finished doing that, my adrenaline is usually too high for me to crash with them. Or, during our wanders, I’ve found 10 more chores that need to be done sooner rather than later.

I used to be able to do a 20 or 30 minute “power nap,” but over time that has turned into 20 or 30 minutes of me telling myself I really should take a nap and then giving up and feeling more tired than before. It’s very hard to nap when the voices in your head won’t shut up.

I sometimes wonder exactly how much sleep I would need to feel well and fully rested. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that there is a very fine line between how much sleep I need, how much sleep I get, and how much sleep is too much sleep and turns me into a groggy mess.

As sleep continues to elude me, I’ve tried going back to my old standby, reading with a flashlight under the covers, but the shadows that creates make Duncan go bonkers, and then no one in the house sleeps.

I’ve also tried tiring myself out, exercising and staying busy during the day, not napping, and even yoga stretching and breathing exercises before bed. All this did was give me aches and pains that made it even more impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep.

My smartwatch has created just one more thing to worry about when it comes to sleep.

I originally started wearing it, hoping to discover some pattern to my sleeping that might unlock a key to doing it better, but instead, I just became obsessed with how many times a night I wake up, or how little time I seem to get actual deep restful sleep.

All of this to say, that when a rainy afternoon and a clear conscience combined with dogs that were resigned to staying in for the day to create the perfect atmosphere for the perfect nap, I managed to pull it off. No watch, no white noise to block everything out, no screen to distract me. I cracked the window slightly to cool the room and listen to the downpour and pulled the covers over my head.

About three hours later, two cold, wet noses informed me that they’d been patient enough, and like it or not, we were all going to have to head outside. As I climbed out of bed, I noticed that a few of my usual aches and pains were missing and I wasn’t looking or a snooze button to hit.

Sometimes, a nap can make all the difference.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News.