Naps

Do you have a low point of the day?  A time when your energy level depletes and you just kind of grind to a stop?  For me this time is between 2:00 and 4:00 every afternoon.  My energy level drops, I slow down at whatever I am working on and I long to take a nap.  I’m not sure if this is inbred in me from genetics or if it is inbred in me from my mom.

My mom used to take a nap every afternoon.  After lunch, and after smoking one more cigarette, she would announce that she was going to take a nap and to keep the noise down and off she would go.  We wouldn’t see her again until around 3:30 or 4:00.  Every afternoon.  When I was really young, she used to make me take naps too.  But by the time I was four, she just let me stay up and she would go to bed.  Mom would blame the kids for this phenomenon.  After all the baby needs to take a nap (that baby being my younger brother and then my younger sister) so she was just going to lie down too.  But when my sister was old enough to not nap, Mom was still napping.

Of course this gave us kids a certain level of freedom.  Since Mom was sleeping, she didn’t know that my older brother and I would take off on our bikes and ride around the east part of Detroit.  Not just our neighborhood either.  We went miles and miles in search of hobby shops or skateboarding shops or just ride around. We would stay off the main roads and just took the residential streets.  As long as we were back before Mom realized we were gone, it was ok.  That time would vary but usually it was about the time she needed someone to set the table for dinner.  So we made sure we were back on our street by 4:30 or 5:00.  That way she could shout out the door for someone (usually me) to come in and set the table for dinner and we would hear her.

Getting back to the low point of the day…is this desire to nap a genetic thing or inbred from my mom taking naps while I was growing up?  I’m not sure.  I just know that come about 2:00 in the afternoon, I would love to lie down, close my eyes and just sleep for twenty minutes or so.  Just re-charge the batteries, so to speak.  Unfortunately, according to our new employee handbook, sleeping on the job is forbidden.  (Yes, we actually put it in the employee handbook).  So the only time I get to indulge in the family tradition of napping is on Saturdays and Sundays.  Someday, if I ever am my own boss, I would write it in the employee handbook that people can find a quiet place, close their eyes and rest for a half an hour in the afternoon.  Sort of a grown-up equivalent of the quiet time we had in kindergarten.  I think people would be happier, more relaxed and get more accomplished if they could rest for a while every afternoon.  I guess my mom had the right idea!