Naps

I just woke up from a nap.

Don’t judge me. I’m (unreadable) years old, and I still nap.  Mostly on weekends, but nap I do!  I’ve also been known to nap when I’m sick or not feeling well.

Naps are not just for kids under five. They are not merely an invention born out of necessity to calm cranky kids down and give parents and kindergarten teachers a break. 

Heck, as a former high school teacher, I would have loved instituted nap times for my students during the day; it might have solved some issues for the chronically late students.  And given me more prep time. Or just plain old naptime, too.

Although, come to think of it, maybe it would have brought on some other problems. Like having to wake teenagers after a nap.  In some cases, I might as well have had a sign on my forehead that reads “I have a death wish!”

Naps, as many of you will agree, are glorious. And for everyone.  I’m of the firm opinion that we need to adopt the Spanish system and bring in the Siesta.  You know, most places of work there, from what I understand, shut down after lunch for a few hours so people can go home and … wait for it … sleep.  Of course, their businesses are open much later into the evening.

But you know that dreadful food coma that inevitably hits after lunch every day, especially when you sit in an office chair – like I do – and keeps pulling your eyelids down and making you sluggish and unable to think?

A mid-day nap – even just 20 minutes – would fix all of that, no?

But alas, it is not part of our schedules it would seem; at least not in this country.  Not to mention, we’d probably spend the afternoon dealing with the after-nap grogginess (much like I’m experiencing myself at the moment.  Goodness, the number of mistakes I’m making – and subsequently deleting – right now is abhorrent!).

So I must be satisfied with weekend naps. 

Though somehow I could never bring myself to limiting my naps to *just* 20 minutes.  From what I understand, 20 minutes is the perfect amount of time to get into REM sleep and rejuvenate a person to allow them to keep functioning.

I don’t buy it. On days like today – where I only have half-baked plans and nothing that has to be done right this moment – I’ll lie down and not set an alarm.  Today, I went to bed around 4:30 PM, and next thing I knew, it was almost 7:30. That night.  Poof! Three hours of my day. Gone just like that. 

Clearly, I needed to catch up on some sleep.  And, as it happens, I also inadvertently created an excuse to not be productive around the house.  There’s something quite spectacular about using the “It’s dark so it must be late!” excuse to allow a person to cuddle under some blankets and unwind, even though dishes still need to be done (different ones than last time, I assure you, and fewer, too).

But then the current darkness can be blamed on last night’s time change. Which, come to think of it, is another way of catching up on sleep.  That is, if you actually go to bed early(ish) and not have kids waking you up, since they are governed, it would seem, by Anna of Arendelle logic: “The sky’s awake, so I’m awake!”

But the success of today’s … nappage (now a word) will be determined by how well I sleep tonight. And by how I feel in the morning.