Is It Nap Time Yet?

By John McDonnell

I remember a time when I wasn’t so sleep deprived. All through my childhood I averaged at least eight hours of sleep a night. In college I stayed up later, of course, but I tried to make up for that sleep deficit by snoozing most of the day away on Saturday and Sunday.

In my single years during my 20s I got enough sleep. Oh, there were times when I pushed the envelope, staying out at a bar till three in the morning on Thursday nights with my friends and then getting up at seven and putting in a 12 hour shift at the bank where I worked. Most weeknights, though, I got a good eight hours in.

All that changed when my first child was born. My sleep pattern was permanently destroyed. Who could sleep when you have a baby in the house? Even if your wife is getting up to feed it, you can’t help being disturbed by that insistent little cry every few hours. And when they get sick? The first time your child has a fever at night? Say goodbye to forty winks then. You’re up all night worrying, if nothing else. You pace around the house, checking the baby every few minutes, watching for the least sign of distress. It’s not a recipe for relaxation, that’s for sure.

It doesn’t end when they grow out of infancy, either. Children get nightmares, they get sick at night, they have anxieties -- all of which means they end up in Mom and Dad’s bed. It might seem sweet to have a young child snuggle up against you in bed, but the reality is they act like little Nazis, pushing and kicking you in their sleep, till you’re curled up in a ball on the edge of the mattress, your mind full of unsettling dreams about falling off a cliff.

If you have multiple children, like I have, you’re in for years of this, till an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep becomes a distant memory.

Oh sure, children don’t stay in this stage forever, but what happens is they become teenagers, a breed of nocturnal creature who needs to be monitored lest they spend too much time at night on Facebook and not enough on homework. On the weekends they go out at night, which means parents are not allowed to fall asleep until all the teenagers are back and safely in their beds.

Add to this the fact that some of us develop sleep apnea in middle age (ahem), which means that we spend our nights snoring and waking up 50 times an hour at the subconscious level because we can’t catch our breath, and the sweet sleep of youth is gone forever.

There’s a solution for this, and it’s called napping.

I have a relative who has taken an afternoon nap almost every day for the past 40 years. She is a calm, happy person who is relatively free of health problems, and doesn’t walk around bleary-eyed and yawning all day like I do.

There have been many scientific studies in recent years that say napping is good for you. People who nap are happier, more creative, more productive, and less prone to all sorts of health problems. Some companies have actually created rooms where employees can go to nap, with beds, soft music, and dimmed lights. The “Power Nap” is a concept that is catching on in certain industries.

I think it will take a long time before napping becomes popular in the U.S., though. We’re too driven, too caffeinated, to throttle back every day for a half hour nap. Can you imagine the New York Stock Exchange, the ultimate symbol of capitalism, ringing a bell at 3:00 and all the traders curling up with their blankets and pillows to take a nap? No, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Then again, there have been examples of people who take regular naps, even in high stress jobs. I still remember seeing a picture of Edwin Moses, the Olympic gold medal winner in the hurdles, stretched out on the infield at a track meet, napping before his event. And I read an interview with Kevin Costner years ago where he said he took naps in between takes when he was filming some of his early movies.

Well, I just may have to try it. I’ve given up on getting a full night’s sleep for awhile. Things probably won’t change until a few years from now, when my last child graduates from the teenage years. It looks like I may have to start catnapping at my desk, or when possible, stretched out on a couch in my office.

It may improve my creativity, may make me more productive, I don’t know. It may add years to my life.

Until I have grandchildren, and they come to my house for sleepovers.    

THE END