To Sleep Is Human, To Nap Divine

Napping is pretty big. This article in Elle delighted me. It presents a defence of napping and its mental and physical benefits. It’s eloquent and well interviewed. I love to nap. I thought everyone did. But it’s come to my attention that some people view it as lazy or like an interruption to their otherwise productive days. How sad. 

I can see beyond this shortsighted and uninspired take on napping. I’m aware how sometimes you get up feeling like you don’t know where you are or where any of your stuff is. My only response is that you can learn to embrace this feeling. To get right back into whatever you were doing pre-nap would be a lot to handle and I don’t encourage it. I like a slow start post nap which eventually turns into a buzzing avalanche of doing other things in the afternoon or evening after you get up.

The location of my nap is irrelevant. While I love to couch nap at my parents, I only nap in my bed at home. I don’t prefer one to the other but I can see how tricking your body into sleeping midday in your bed can be confusing for it at night. Wasn’t I just here? I also don’t differentiate between the naps my body needs and the naps I give to it. I can appreciate how some people create a ritual around napping, like in the Elle article full of napping pros. My naps are more perfunctory and less ceremonial. I just want a little more sleep in the middle of the day. 

It takes a lot for me to feel comfortable enough to nap. There are wellness rooms at my office for those who need it for breastfeeding, to pray, to inject insulin, or as a recovery room for their illnesses. I’ve only used it after regular working hours when I’ve been at work for a late meeting. The idea of taking up the room for a nap when other people need it more urgently worries me. I can’t even get comfortable enough during off hours to get a decent enough sleep in. Work may not be the best spot for naps so it’s off the table for me. But I respect certain workplaces’ commitments to napping, nap pods. 

Same mentality goes for napping on public transit. I’ve only ever envied the people comfortable enough to fall asleep not only in front of others, but on a moving train rapidly heading towards their stop that they presumably have to get off at. They could just be resting their eyes or with someone who will alert them to their upcoming destinations. But I worry for them. Maybe they’re so tired they’re willing to overshoot by a couple of stations. Also, they clearly need the extra sleep. They’re a part of the nap conglomerate. 

When you wake up after your night sleep and your first thoughts are when you will be able to go back to bed, napping gives you that sooner than your regular bedtime would. Napping with other people brings you closer to them faster than it would be without naps. On a very early cottage trip with two of my new friends from work, we set ourselves up to read and chill in the living room. We each had a couch and as the weather got rainier and the room got cozier, we all drifted off to our respective dreamlands. When we each woke up separately about an hour later, I was surprised that we had all felt comfortable enough to close our eyes and fall asleep in front of the others. The ease and casualness of the whole experience made it so special. 

One of my first boyfriends and I napped together before we slept together. We’d fall asleep on the couch watching TLC and move to my room if we woke up and were still tired. Like my friends from work, the naps accelerated our intimacy and allowed us to see each other sleeping in the light of day. A different experience than sleeping next to someone at night, in total darkness. More than once, I’d wake up to find I had drooled on his shirt. I just wouldn’t get this level of connection sleeping next to him overnight.

Naps can be a way to compensate for bad sleeps the night before. I don’t know if this is a true fact but I know it’s what makes me feel better when I toss and turn during my regular sleep schedule. If you’re napping, which often happens spontaneously and without meaning to, you’re not going to toss and turn. 

When I close my eyes for a nap, I never know what I’m going to get. Will I get upset by not being able to fall asleep and get up ten minutes later, more tired and frustrated than I was before I lay down? Or will I conk out completely only to wake thirty minutes later with a foggy brain and what feels like a minor hangover?

I like a mid-morning nap but these are rare. My body is like “I can use another half hour to an hour of sleep.” And my brain is like “What.” These are the naps where I dream the most. It’s like my subconscious is making up for the lack of dreaming during my night sleep in my morning naps.

An afternoon nap can also be helpful. I’m now used to the tiredness I feel after a big lunch, which happens often during quarantine. Most days I resist the tiredness and maintain a regular work schedule through my preferred napping hours (between 3 p.m.-4 p.m.). Some days, the distance between my bed and my desk is so short that I can’t help but throw open my sheets and comforter and quickly jump in for a twenty-minute rest. These afternoon naps are always 20 minutes. I don’t know how my body knows when to wake up but it does. I feel rejuvenated and ready to go most days after I nap. Occasionally, I will have caught myself in a nap sleep cycle and wake up feeling “sluggish, lazy, stupid, and unconcerned.” These naps affront other people but feel like one of the smallest prices to pay for the chance at a good sleep in the middle of the day. What more do you really need from napping? 

While I try to avoid napping after 5 p.m., sometimes it has to happen. My favourite post 5 p.m. naps go off because I’m trying to go out later and not fall asleep at the bar lest they throw me out and accuse my friends of putting roofies in my drink. These are necessity naps and I wake up from them feeling limitless and like I’ve just crammed a whole night’s sleep into half an hour.

The benefits I get from napping are seemingly endless. When you crave the reset of a good night’s rest but can’t wait until nighttime to achieve it, napping has you covered. You get the same outcome with a fraction of the effort. While I try to limit my naps to weekends, they can slip in sometimes. I wake up a bit groggy, but ultimately more productive and better off for having slept when the rest of the world is buzzing around me.