Take a Nap

Take a Nap

It’s kind of a lost art form. Falling asleep–anytime–involves passing through the gate of the body. Have you ever been just at the threshold of sleep, and had your body jerk suddenly, waking you up? That spasm is called a hypnogogic jerk, and it may be related to content in the Autonomic Nervous System that is held in a movement pattern that suddenly completes itself. It points to this passage through the gate of the body on the way into sleep. People who are in a constant defensive response, whose bodies can’t downshift, have a hard time sleeping. So to practice napping is, in a way, to practice downshifting. It is a mildly revolutionary act. I like to take naps in a hammock (rede, hamaca). Sometimes a twenty minute nap is enough. Many traditional cultures–Mexican culture, perhaps most famously–have an afternoon siesta. Mediterranean countries, tropical countries, and Mainland China all have histories of a siesta. A rest during the hottest part of the day. In Northern Italy it is called riposo and in the south pennichella or pisolino. On the Dalmation coast in Croatia, across the Adriatic, it is called pižolot (from Venetian pixolotto). The word siesta itself comes from the latin for the sixth hour (hora sexta), counting from dawn…the rest at midday.

The habit of siesta itself has been meaningful correlated with a reduction in deaths by heart attack (a 37% reduction in coronary mortality). This may be attributed to the reduced cardiovascular stress associated with daytime sleep, but could also be mediated by cultural factors that make it socially acceptable to rest during the day: a meaningful deviation from the hegemony of capitalist-induced worker efficiency.

Sleep patterns are fascinating. In Europe, before the advent of electric light, it was common for people to sleep in two shifts. This is now conceptualized as a Victorian sleep schedule. The first shift generally began at dark, and lasted five or so hours. This would have people awakening somewhere between 11 and 1 am, generally, depending on when it got dark where they lived. For the next hour, they often did chores, read, relaxed, were intimate, and then they went back to sleep. This second sleep lasted until morning. In sleep terminology, this is called biphasic sleep. With the advent of electric light, people stayed up much later, and this two phase sleep was consolidated into a single phase, which became the new normal. Yet this ‘normal’ is predicated on routines that are useful to capitalism, not necessarily to the body.

Figuring out your own sleep pattern is a useful exploratory exercise. We all know night people, and morning people. Each of us has a spectrum of alertness, and is most vivid or vital at different times of day. And this may change throughout our lives. Until we had our first child, I couldn’t function with less than 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. After we had our first child, I couldn’t remember the last time I had 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. In my forties, I became an early early riser. In tandem with this, I grew to appreciate the brief afternoon nap.