Monday, March 11, 2019

the art of napping

A friend told me that today is National Nap Day.  Now there's a day I can appreciate.  Interesting that it comes two days after "Spring Forward" when we are all feeling a little sleep deprived.  Sadly, I didn't have an opportunity to nap today, but I am a big believer in naps.  It's a life-long love and something I do really well.  To be really effective a nap needs to happen stretched out on a couch.  I suppose a recliner might also work but I don't own a recliner.  Generally, my afternoon naps last 20 minutes.  I don't know why that is but I suspect it goes back to childhood training.  My mother always made sure that, when we weren't in school, we took a half-hour rest after lunch, each of us in our own bedroom.  Looking back from an adult perspective, I realize that this was her chance to get a break.  Wise woman.  Anyway, during those summery afternoon breaks I would generally read for a while, then doze off for about 20 minutes, before one of my less nap-happy brothers would wake me up.  In fact, on one memorable summer afternoon, I napped so well and so deeply that I slep through a fire engine arriving at our house, siren blaring, to put out a fire in the basement. Actually it turned out there wasn't a fire.  Our old dryer was simply billowing out lots of smoke as it gave up the ghost.  
In a similar situation later in my life, my college roommate can testify that I almost slept through a fire drill in our dorm, and the alarm was in the hallway right outside our room. 

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