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A recent commission led by Dement identified an “American sleep debt,”
which one member said was as important as the national debt. The commission
was worried about the dangers of sleepiness: people causing industrial accidents
or falling asleep while driving. This may be why there is a new sleep policy in
the White House: according to recent reports, President Bill Clinton tries to take
a half-hour snooze every afternoon.
About 60% of adults do nap when given the opportunity. We seem to have “a
mid-afternoon quiescent phase”, also called “a secondary sleep gate.” Sleeping
for fifteen minutes to two hours in the early afternoon can reduce stress and
improve alertness. Clearly, we were born to nap.
We Superstars of Snooze don’t nap to replace lost shut-eye or to prepare for a
night shift. Rather we “snack” on sleep whenever and wherever we feel like it.
Call it somnia. I myself have napped in buses, cars, planes and on boats, on
floors, sofas and beds, and in libraries, offices and museums.
There is an exquisite pleasure in giving oneself over to drowsiness,
particularly if you ought to be doing something else. And we should all note that
napping is one of the few pleasures left that are not life-threatening.
The pathologically alert like to think they get more done than nappers.
Wrong again. Winston Churchill slept every afternoon when he was the wartime
prime minister. Napoleon napped on the battlefield.
If there is to be a transformation of sleep behavior, we nappers, must share
our “sleeping skills” with those less fortunate – the nap-impaired. For starters,
here are a few of my favorite naps.
At work: nap freedom to me is as great an incentive as money or power.
Sleeping at work is superbly satisfying, and in some cases necessary. Lorry
drivers should pull over at the first sign of drowsiness - as should anyone
operating heavy machinery, including a word processor.
At a concert: sleeping (discreetly) at a concert can be among life’s great
experiences. One rides the music, wafted this way and that on themes and
leitmotifs. Wagner in particular promotes vivid dreams.
Best nap of all: my all-time-favorite way to snooze is in a shady hammock,
on a mild summer day and – this is what makes it perfect – a huge, important
book on my chest, open and unread.
Such napping says much about the principles by which we live and sleep.
There is the story told about a young playwright who once asked a famous
author to view a rehearsal of his new play. The author slept through the whole
thing. Afterwards the young man complained, saying he really had wanted the
author’s opinion. In a pithy summation of the committed napper’s view of
waking life, the author replied,” Sleep is an opinion.”
So what do you think of the article?
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