The lost art of napping

Oh, look. Here's something I wrote 2 years ago. Finding all kinds of drafts...



I read an article on napping the other day. It was a wonderful article all about the pleasures and joys of sleeping in the light. Indeed, the medicine fields are telling is more and more how good napping is for us (and sometimes not, because nothing can be clear cut) but this article is about the simple down-home, good feeling, deliciousness of a nap.

That said, I must argue just a teeeeensy bit with the author. She says that, "a nap is not a nap without light." As far as I'm concerned, sleep when one is not supposed to be sleeping, or when it is not a full night's sleep, is a nap.

Consider: Snoozing on the airplane on a one-hour 9 pm flight. Hunching down at your desk behind the towering inbox to catch a catnap. Skipping lunch everyday to, instead, sleep in your car in the parking garage, blanket and pillow at the ready. Or one of my personal favorites: falling asleep on your bed without getting ready for bed, thinking maybe you'll get up and finish a few more things. These things do not happen with the lovely afternoon light dappling your face through freshly bleached linen curtains. But, O! Those sweet long blinks over tired eyes. The slow relaxation of muscles in the face of "this isn't the time," or "this isn't the place, " or "no, not yet..." This is the stuff of naps.