Nappuccino please, extra foam!

One Nappuccino please. An afternoon one, no longer than 20-30 minutes.
I come from a long line of nappers. My mother is from the deep South and when I was little, we used to go there to visit my grandmother. EVERYONE there would take a nap from noon to 2. Businesses closed down, traffic was non existence and no one came to visit because without air conditioning, everyone tried to wait out the afternoon heat. My grandmother and great aunt would carefully take off their cotton summer dresses, and wearing their white dress slips, stretch out on their beds trying to catch a breeze from the table top metal fans. It was a quiet, soothing time to unwind and de-stress, at least for anyone over the age of 20; it was pure torture for anyone younger. 2 hours, an eternity, a lifetime, to wander around the house and wait for the world to start up again.


There are 2 types of optimum naps. The first one is 20-30 minutes long, which is just enough time, for a 'pick me up' to get you through the rest of the day, Any longer than that and you fall into deep sleep and then into a 'REM' cycle , where you start dreaming. A REM cycle occurs every 90-120 minutes of sleep and can last from 5 to 45 minutes. Either nap short enough not to go into REM, or nap long enough to go through a complete cycle. Waking up in the middle will cause you to feel 'groggy' almost like a sleep hangover.


Think napping is a waste of time? That nothing productive can come from it? Tell that to some of the most famous nappers, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. And in our own time, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, slackers both!


There has been debate of which comes first, getting sleepy around midday and your body temperature drops or maybe it's the other way around, your body temperature drops and that causes you to seek sleep. The best way to remember the optimum length is ' 40 winks.' Just long enough to give you a power nap. 40 winks to remind yourself that the world can carry on without you and for you to retreat into the bliss of your unconsciousness, and give your mind and thoughts a rest, a break from it all, to come back to awareness with a clearer vision and refreshed enough to handle whatever else comes your way.


So flip the fan on, feel the cool breeze on your face and take a nap, cat!

SleepCompass.com Jane