Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Nap Shame

I'll admit it. I'm a napper. And I'm not alone. When I can get one, that is, seeing as I have these little darlings who interfere with my Perfect Schedule:

8 AM Rise - 1 AM Go to Bed

One hour nap after lunch some time--around 1:30-2:00. I simply love naps and get far too few of them. I resent the "early to bed, early to rise" nonsense. I resent the implication of laziness if one enjoys a nap. I resent the Martha Stewarts of the world who only need four hours of sleep and wake at 4:00 a.m. Actually, I'm jealous. I require much more sleep. I also resent clucking relatives who, after knowing my unorthodox schedule for years, still say, "You were up that late?" Leave me alone! I'm a grown woman. I can sleep when I want to.

Ann Althouse asks:

Why must we feel ashamed? In fact, why shouldn't our employers provide us with nap rooms? Some actually do. Or maybe you can set up your own office to make it nappable. Back in my home office, in Wisconsin, I have a perfect sofa for napping. And it is not goofing off. A 20 minute nap is part of a formula for a very productive day. Why are people so Puritanical about naps? They want to see people looking busy. They can be barely conscious and get nothing done, but to surrender consciousness altogether... we're so afraid of that.
Why, indeed? Winston Churchill was a famous napper. He's my nap hero.

More on napping.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This made me laugh! :-)

I also need a lot of "down time" but do not get it as much as I would like. Your dear sister told me that some would consider people like me "lazy". Sounds familiar? At any rate, I am far from being lazy and I could relate to your comment here.

Anonymous said...

I don't get much of chance to nap, but I do know that I would be much more productive if I did. In fact, I would probably be more productive if I could sleep in and then work 5 or 6 hour days than I am when working 8 hour days after having to get up earlier than my body naturally prefers. This is especially true considering the type of work I do which really isn't the type of work that needs to be done according to a 9-5 schedule. Oh well, such is life I guess.

Jason