Pope Francis confesses he sometimes falls asleep while praying

Pope Francis. Photo / AP

Pope Francis has disclosed that he sometimes falls asleep when he is praying, but that he doesn't consider it a problem.

He believes God is happy when he nods off "like a child in the arms of his father".

The 80-year-old pontiff made the revelation during an appearance in a programme called "Our Father", hosted on the Vatican television station Tv2000 by a priest, Father Marco Pozza, who is a prison chaplain in the city of Padua.

"When I go to pray some times I fall asleep," Francis said.

"Saint Teresina of the Baby Jesus also did so. She used to say that the Lord, God, the Father, likes it when somebody falls asleep.

"There is Psalm 129 ... that says that I am before God like a child in the arms of his father. this is one of the many ways in which the name of God becomes sanctified - feeling like a child in his arms."

The disclosure is the latest in a series by the Argentinian pope about his personal life and human frailties.

He recently told of how he underwent analysis by a psychiatrist in the 1970s.

He said: "At a certain point, I felt the need to consult an analyst. For six months, I went to her house once a week to clarify a few things."

Francis added that "we say we are Christians, that we have a father, but we live like, I wouldn't say like animals, but like people who believe neither in God nor in man, without faith, and we also live doing evil. We live not in love but in hate, in competition, in the wars".

Francis handles his grueling routine as head of the Roman Catholic Church by going to bed early at around 9pm, then rising at 5am, and takes a siesta most afternoons, Vatican sources say.