Ask A Genius 1370: Napping, Aging, and Dreaming of Kimmel
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/10
Rick Rosner reflects on how his approach to napping has evolved with age—from sneaking naps at work in his fifties to unapologetically embracing them in his sixties. Now hosting a morning segment on Podtv, he often naps afterward and even uses personal rituals, like sleeping naked with one sock, to maximize rest. He jokes about masturbation as a nap aid and critiques his partner Carole’s poor nap setup. Rosner notes that his dreams, though infrequent, are vivid and often involve being back at Jimmy Kimmel Live!—a recurring theme suggesting the deep psychological imprint of that period in his life.
Rick Rosner is an accomplished television writer with credits on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Crank Yankers, and The Man Show. Over his career, he has earned multiple Writers Guild Award nominations—winning one—and an Emmy nomination. Rosner holds a broad academic background, graduating with the equivalent of eight majors. Based in Los Angeles, he continues to write and develop ideas while spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, how much have your naps increased—in frequency, length, and depth of sleep—as you’ve moved through your thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties?
Rick Rosner: It’s not the degree—I’ve always been able to nap. It’s the unapologeticness of it now. Carole lets me get away with it. Back when I was at Kimmel—and this was well into my fifties—I’d drowse off every day at 3:00 PM. Which, you know, you can’t do there.
It’s a workplace, and I was always getting caught napping. Then I learned to drink coffee. On coffee, I don’t fall asleep. But then Kimmel fired me—almost eleven years ago.
Now? I will fucking sleep. I do this segment on Podtv, where I get up at a quarter after six, and from 7:00 to 8:00 AM, I yell at people about the day’s events. Then I go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I might take another nap in the afternoon.
I’ll probably jerk off and fall asleep if Carol’s not around.
Jerking off used to be my go-to method for falling asleep at night. But lately, I’m often just a little too tired. 50% of the time, I try to jerk off after midnight and abandon the mission because I’m too sleepy. But during the day, I’m usually awake enough to jerk off—and sleepy enough afterward, leading to a solid nap.
Carole tolerates the naps. I don’t know if she sees it as something old guys have to do or what, but she doesn’t give me much shit about it.
So I’m happy to take the opportunity.
Oh, and let’s talk about Carole’s bad napping skills. If you’re going to nap, you have to set yourself up for success. Unless you’re just really sleepy, you’ve got to configure yourself as you would if you were going to bed. At the very least, take off your shoes.
Shoes will fuck up a nap. I sleep naked except for a sock on one leg. So I take off everything except the sock. I need that sock to keep the leg from swelling. Get under the covers—do the whole thing. Carole doesn’t do any of that. She’ll curl up on a couch with her shoes on. It’s not going to fucking work. Do you… nap?
Jacobsen: Yes.
Rosmer”You probably can’t let yourself nap that often. You’re highly productive.
Jacobsen: I’ll nap two or three times a week—tight naps, however. Some summer days, I’ll lie down and decompress after hour ten or something. If I start my day at 6:30 or 7:00 AM, I’ll hit hour ten by 4:00 or 5:00 PM—and then it’s time.
It’s that window. I don’t eat until around noon, and I eat the day before around 4:00, 5:00, or 6:00 PM. So, if I let that fast run too long, I crash because I haven’t had any energy input. But if I eat too early, I feel icky. I can eat anything, but in terms of focus, I do find it’s easier to concentrate if there’s been a long stretch without food.
Rosner: Well, you’re highly disciplined. I’ll sleep with my left arm bent if I don’t want to sleep long. If I want to sleep for a while, I have to lie in “shrouded terrain posture.” A bent arm will numb my forearm, waking me up. That’s my alarm clock.
Jacobsen: Are your sleeps generally more or less restful as you age?
Rosner: Generally restful. I’ve always been lucky that way.
The best sleep is when you come straight out of a dream, you’re in deep REM, and it’s so vivid that you actually wake up from a long, involved dream. That only happens once every five days or so. I’m sure I dream at other times, but I probably exit the dream and slip into some other phase of sleep and don’t remember a thing.
So it’s fairly uncommon that I sleep long enough to wake up from a dream. And when I do, they’re pretty much always the same fucking dream. I’m back at Kimmel. I’ve been allowed to work there provisionally, but they’re not paying me. I’m there while they wait to see if I can perform well enough to justifypaying me again.Or they are paying me, but it’s understood that none of my material will be usable, and they’re paying me out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s straight-up fucking charity. Generally, somewhere in the dream, I’m also trying to locate my car—and I have no fucking idea where it is. So based on my dreams, Kimmel was the dominant experience of my life.
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