I come from a family of big sleepers. My 96-year old grandfather goes to bed early, wakes up early, and always takes a nice long nap every afternoon. My father used to drive home for lunch every day, and snore away the early afternoon to the rhythmic tapper-tap-tap on his massage chair. Even my mother, stuck in her office, would often find some way to work in some napping time through the day.

Naps are great.

With work and the constant stream of busy that seems to occupy many of our lives, afternoon naps seem like such a luxury. These days, I only ever get to nap on the rare quiet weekend, or when I am under the weather and cooped up at home.

I don’t know why, but it is so much easier to fall asleep after a good lunch. As the warm afternoon sun shines through the window, everything just feels so calm… peaceful… sleepy… It is actually at night, with all the bright lights and vibrating mobile phones that I have trouble finding sleep.

Naps make me miss bright summer days. I spent one summer in Europe, and fell in love with the long days that seemed to never end. Darkness hitting after 10PM. Bright, bright evenings. The sun fueling all this energy that I never knew I had. I felt so alive. It is so amazing to nap and wake up to the same bright sunlight you went to sleep seeing. Like the world has just been waiting for you to wake up.

I hate late naps in the winter afternoon. Snuggling under my duvet, letting myself sink… sink… And then opening my eyes more than hour later, finding out that the whole world’s gone dark. Suddenly I’m in the middle of night time, and I feel groggy as hell. I always have to keep a light on when I nap in the winter, or I might sleep all the way through to midnight.

I read recently about polyphasic and biphasic sleeping. Clearly, a little afternoon nap works well with our circadian rhythms. I am not sure naps on a toilet seat count. (I suspect this is why the office’s bathroom stalls are always occupied in the early and mid-afternoon…) I wonder why corporations seem so averse to the idea of working in a little nappy-nap time?

This weekend, I am looking forward to stretching out my toes, curling up, and shutting my eyes for some quality nap time.