Is Napping a Necessity For You?

By Bill Doyle

The National Sleep Foundation released the results of a pretty interesting station about the amount of sleep that people around the world get. Most of the survey dealt with the amount of sleep people get on work nights vs. weekends (Americans get less sleep than most other countries, by the way), but what I thought was interesting was that 51% of Americans said they had taken a daytime nap in the past two weeks. Now, I'll have to assume that those two weeks included weekends, in which case I wouldn't be surprised at the number; if it only included weekdays I would be very surprised.

Naps are a staple in my business, especially among those who work mornings. I've worked mornings in my career, but I could never successfully nap; I even bought a book on napping that explained how long it takes you to get into REM sleep, how to nap and wake up feeling refreshed, etc. I couldn't do it; now, I know you're wondering how someone could be unsuccessful at napping. What would happen is that I could fall asleep no problem, but waking up was problematic; upon waking I would be so groggy for so long that there was no benefit to napping. So I gave up trying. How about you?

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