To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Discovering the virtue of naps -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today's blog is about something that shouldn't be controversial but is -- the phenomenon of napping. I've always thought that sleep habits were a personal matter and there was no particular 'right' or 'wrong' to the matter. But as far back as Benjamin Franklin, there were already moral statements:

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

A rule of thumb is that adults need 8 hours of sleep a day. Some manic types may easily skate by on 6 or 7 hours and older people may snooze away 10 hours. I've thought as long as it totals to 8, who cares about start times, stop times or interruptions. I told a friend at my last job how I take a 1 hour nap as soon as I get home from work -- usually from 6-7PM. I go to bed about midnight and get up about 6:30AM. This gives me 7.5 hours, only .5 shy of the golden 8. I'm manic to put it mildly, so that's probably enough. My friend furrowed his brow in serious objection. "Is that good for you? I'd sleep all night if I did that". Well, I don't sleep all night -- I have a pleasant nap and rouse myself awake for another 5 hours of activity.

Other friends have taken Ben Franklin to heart, and there is a one-upsmanship about what time they arise. "I get up at 5 and read the Wall Street Journal". "I get up at 4:30 and go to a Spin class". To one-up these guys, you'd have to move into Matt Lauer territory and get up at 3:30AM. The other aspect of this schedule is going to bed at 8 in the evening. In summer, there is daylight streaming through the windows and another two hours of prime time television. Stores aren't even closed for another 1.5 hours. You've traded evening leisure for morning -- when TV is showing old sitcoms, religious programming and infomercials. It's still dark outside and the stores aren't yet open. You get to work at 8PM, and you've already been up for 4 hours (to me, that would almost be time for a 'napette'). For weekends and holidays, adult 'play' time is markedly later than the Ben Franklin schedule. Bars across America don't start to get business until 10PM, don't get crowded 'til 12AM, and don't quit serving alcohol 'til 2AM. This pushes it almost to Matt Lauer's wake-up time. Movie theaters show 1st-run movies as late as 10PM and some restaurants stay open until midnight. If it's a social life you desire and you're a single adult on the Spin Class schedule, your options fall back to matinee movies and dinner at Bonanza Steak House.

Let’s get back to naps. Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, an epidemiologist at Harvard School of Public Health, has found that naps reduce stress and cardiovascular risk. People who nap at least 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week are 37% less likely to die from heart disease. Even occasional napping can give you a 12% reduction. The doctor even recommends workplace nap rooms where workers can take an afternoon siesta. Don't laugh -- it's been done successfully before. The Student Union at UT Austin has a large reading room with sumptuous couches -- they are primarily for napping, not reading. And students, young and vital, catch some zzz's before the afternoon class or tennis game.

In conclusion, to those with 'superior sleep attitude' ...your sleep preference just indicates how you prefer to spend leisure hours and probably reflects a little on your religious or marital status. It doesn't make you a better person in any particular respect. My hour of sleep from 5-6AM is as good as your hour of sleep from 8-9PM. I have an hour of more hustle-bustle and the morning person has an hour more of quiet reflection. Just have to add -- to each his own. Everyone is wired differently and has different demands on their time. And now I'll have that nap that I so obviously need.

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