Napping Day

You probably missed it, so I'll make you feel stupid because you are too tired and weary to know what important days the world celebrates. It's 'Napping Day'. The day after Daylight Savings time goes into effect is the International Napping Day celebration where you are allowed to fall asleep at your computer terminal or snore in front of the TV set without anyone calling you a lazy bum. This Napping Day thing started in 1999 and has not yet to become old and tired.  Thanks for what brought it about should be given to the worst idea of the century, Daylight Savings Time. That's the day in which we all turn our clocks back to make more daylight for our waking hours. Napping Day is supposed to help you adjust to Daylight Savings Time. But I think a better way to adjust to Daylight Savings Time is to do away with DST altogether.

I dislike Daylight Savings Time and think we can find enough good in darkness to not have to change darkness into light.  I know Dracula would agree with that sentiment. But advocating for more naps is a wholly good idea apart from any Napping Day, particularly for one like me who is sleep deprived. I nap every day. Even 30 minutes does the body well. I know you are thinking, "You mean he would be even worse without his nap!"  Well, research says that naps boost alertness,  increase creativity (ok I admit, after reading this you can tell I need a long nap), boosts productivity, improves learning and memory and makes the spirit more positive.

A survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that 63 percent of Americans do not get enough sleep. One in five respondents admitted being so sleepy during the day that it interfered with their activities at least a few days a week. I used to tell my teachers that very fact when they so rudely awakened me in class by throwing those chalk erasers at me. I admit that may have crossed the line by snoring when the English teacher conjugated verbs, so I hold no grudges against them.  But despite my chalky appearance after she connected on her target I am certain I gained more from the nap than from her lectures on dangling participles.

Some pretty prominent types support my view that we should nap, not just on Napping Day but every other day too. Ovid once wrote that, "There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of a briefest, than in all the alcohol every distilled". Hmmm I fear the drunks won't agree...  Even my mom had a wisecrack she told me when I waxed about what I wanted to do in life. She used to say, "You want to follow your dreams. Just shut up and take a nap."

We adults make toddlers take naps every day (sometimes so we can relax enough to take our own nap). Just think how happy workers would be if the boss set up cots for naps every day. Since most employees in most offices sleep at their computer terminals anyway, it would be better to give them a cot on which to do it. Are you feeling sleepy? Even if my boring tirade about napping hasn't induced a coma in you, go for it and take a a nap to celebrate Napping Day.