For the Love of The Nap
I love a good nap. Sometimes it’s all that’s getting me out of bed in the morning.
George Costanza
I’ll never forget when my high school history teacher informed me that Winston Churchill took naps. “Even during the war!” he said. I was stunned because I confessed my love of naps fully expecting a deriding comment in reply about my generation being lazy.
That day was just the beginning of my lifelong infatuation with the nap. Until that day, I napped with shame. Now, I had world leader wisdom on my side. Over the years other supports for the nap have come to my attention—everything from much of the rest of the world appreciating their siestas and other cultural words for a midday rest, to the rise of power nap backed by the medical community, to a hearty endorsement from the consummate professional George Louis Costanza. And while I will not name names, a friend of mine told me he did his internship with a Free Will Baptist youth pastor years ago and the first day he showed up to the church to work, the youth pastor excused himself to go sleep for a while on a couch and then got up and started his day’s ministry.
And I have to say, it all causes me to love the nap with my whole heart, and I don’t really care how long they are. I love 20-minute naps. I love 3-hour naps. And everything in between. Maybe my favorite nap times ever were when I worked in a high-rise building in downtown Chicago for two years after I moved here. My lunch was an hour but I would always eat in 10 minutes and nap the other 50. I always felt refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day. Some friends have told me that naps only make them more tired. To me, they supplement a bad or average night’s sleep perfectly.
So even though they are associated strongly with kindergarten in American culture and can give the appearance of slacking off, I heartily endorse the nap. I love the nap with my whole heart.
What about you? How do you feel about the nap?
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I love naps. I used to not like them. I changed my mind. I wrote about it some time back for REO. I think it’s in one of the articles linked at the bottom of this article.
I nap almost every day at work on my lunch break – much like your time working for the high-rise in Chicago. It’s beautiful and it makes my wonderful wife very jealous.
I knew you took those work naps and that was a reminder of those I took and so I included it. It was amazing how every day I would wake up right at the time I needed to go back to work. this was before cell phones (for me at least, around 2002 and 2003) so I chanced it every day that I would wake up. I always did. And it was glorious!
I take a nap almost every day, and have for much of my life.
That’s awesome, Steve! The amount of people I respect that take (or took) naps is astronomical but I am thankful for each one. When I was in college my youth ministry professor taught us the value of rest and said, “If you need to nap, even every day or almost every day, do it. Provided your job or ministry isn’t negatively affected.”
I enjoy naps when I have them, but not really a nap person. When I do its usually for less than 20 minutes.
And that is why you fail.
Your face fails!