Napping--Not Just for Kids

I feel better--I am not alone. One third of adults nap. I remember one of my colleagues at the Pentagon would rest his head (not his arms, just his head) on his desk for a 15-20 minute nap. But he was a pilot, so falling asleep in uncomfortable places was nothing new to him.

“Are we accurate reporters of our own habits?” said Paul Taylor, the Pew center’s director. “If you asked my grown children whether I nap, their answer is yes. Their defining image of me is in an easy chair with a newspaper in my lap, dozing off. If you ask me, my answer is no. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.”

Napping, writes James B. Maas, a Cornell University sleep expert, “should have the status of daily exercise.”

Amen, brother. So say we all. Of course, it is easy to become more dutiful in fulfilling the daily requirement of napping than of exercise.