Naps

Last night at bedtime I read Hurricane a book called “Ship of Dreams” by Dean Morrissey. It is about a young boy meeting the Sandman. Not the Sandman from the Spiderman comics and movie, but the real and actual Sandman that puts us all to sleep at night. Some adults sometimes have a visit from Alcoholman who puts them out for a few hours, but this book is about the Sandman. Tornado wanted “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, so we had to go into separate rooms. I really liked the “Ship of Dreams” and I may read it again myself and spend a little more time looking at the art work which is pretty impressive.

I started to think about sleeping in general and naps in particular today. Hurricane is beyond afternoon naps for the most part and Tornado actually needs one but is in that in between stage where cranky and difficult replaces quiet and unconscious. Too bad! Shortly after they left this afternoon, grandma and poppa had an afternoon nap. We are both many, many years past afternoon naps, but we had a visit from Exhaustionman.

I just can’t figure out why the boys don’t want to have naps. I love naps! Naps seem to love me! Me and napping is a match made in heaven. I have been napping for most of my life. Two or three years after I was born and then whenever I could squeeze one in as an adult. Even though I am retired and seldom earn naps, I will grab one whenever I can. You never know when you will get a chance to recharge your internal batteries with a good sleep.

 

When I was working, I found that if I were to walk quickly and stayed focused on the job, I could get home and squeeze in an hour nap or so before the kids got home from school. I thought that I was alone in my love for naps, but it turned out that most of my co-workers would make good use of the “power” nap. I grew older and found that if I didn’t rush through my day I wasn’t as tired and didn’t need to have a nap every afternoon. I did have a nap every afternoon, but I didn’t need one.

 

Naps are wonderful treats that you can give yourself if you ever have an hour or two of free time. Naps aren’t like night time sleeps, because with the night time sleeps, you are generally going to bed so that you can get up the next morning (too fucking early) and go to work. There is no pressure with a nap. Sleep, don’t sleep, it doesn’t matter and because it doesn’t matter you won’t have a problem dropping off for an hour or two of bliss. I won’t lie to you, you don’t always wake up fresh and ready to take on a dragon, but it is a little easier to face that pile of dishes, cutting the lawn or trying to decide just which TV show to watch, somewhat recharged.

I’m getting tired just writing about being tired. I wonder if I can squeeze in 30 minutes or so before bedtime…