Once I read about an industrial magnate who used to sit in his chair after lunch with a spoon held in his hand over the arm of the chair. As his eyes closed and he began to doze off, his grip on the spoon would slacken and it would fall to the floor, the clatter waking him up. He used to say that the few seconds of slumber he enjoyed from when his eyes closed to when the spoon touched the floor provided him enough rest to get going again.
Who does not care for a bit of shut-eye after the midday meal? It is the most blessed and blissful sleep. Not everyone is in a position to indulge in this luxury, of course, and for some it is a rarity. In school and college, it is easy to catch twenty (if not forty) winks if you happen to be a backbencher.
Once we enter the real world we remain busy throughout the day and there is no question of afternoon naps during the week. Weekends are different but since siestas are permitted then, it becomes difficult to drop off. It is only when sleep is not “allowed” that it becomes easy to fall asleep. For instance, students sleep soundly when exams are around the corner and for office-goers, it is easy to doze off during afternoon meetings but not when at home during the weekend.
I worked in a corporate office for a few years and whenever we had a training programme, the trainer would create a game for us in the beginning of the post-lunch session. This was to keep us awake and alert, and it worked.
What is sleep but a daily death? It is pure oblivion—we are dead to the world when we sleep. Everyone is a little scared of death but we all welcome sleep. A short sleep in the afternoon is good for the body and soul. In Japan, many offices provide beds for their employees to take small power naps during their lunch breaks. They have found a small nap in the middle of the day makes the employees more efficient.
A mother of a small child is entitled to a nap in the afternoon as she spends sleepless nights. Homemakers can also indulge in siestas as they are “free” in the afternoons. As a homemaker now, I am well aware of this privilege and use it to the fullest. Lying in bed with a book or magazine, reading till the letters become blurry, feeling one’s eyelids getting heavy, gradually getting enveloped in hazy images of dreams beginning … Ah! What bliss!
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