[00:02.32]Naps
[00:04.55]Napping is too luxurious, too sybaritic,
[00:09.14]too unproductive, and it's free;
[00:11.56]pleasures for which we don't pay make us anxious.
[00:14.93]Besides, it seems to be a natural inclination.
[00:18.34]Those who get paid to investigate such things
[00:21.48]have proved that people deprived of daylight
[00:23.57]and their wristwatches, with no notion of
[00:26.41]whether it was night or day,
[00:28.22]sink blissfully asleep in mid-afternoon as regular as clocks.
[00:32.55]The American nap is even scarier because it's unilateral.
[00:36.66]Sleeping Frenchmen are surrounded by sleeping compatriots,
[00:39.83]but Americans who lie down by day stiffen
[00:42.46]with the thought of the busy world rushing past.
[00:45.27]There we lie, visible and vulnerable on our daylit bed,
[00:49.22]ready to cut the strings and sink into the dark,
[00:52.29]swirling, almost sexual currents of the impending doze,
[00:55.75]but what will happen in our absence? Our stocks will fall;
[00:59.45]our employees will mutiny and seize the helm;
[01:02.00]our clients will tiptoe away to competitors.
[01:04.63]Even the housewife, taking advantage of the afternoon lull,
[01:08.40]knows at the deepest level of consciousness
[01:11.16]that the phone is about to ring.
[01:13.18]And of course, for those of us with proper jobs,
[01:16.53]there's the problem of finding a bed. Some corporations,
[01:19.97]in their concern for their employees' health and fitness,
[01:22.89]provide gym rooms where we can commit
[01:25.00]strenuous exercise at lunchtime, but where are our beds?
[01:28.26]In Japan, the productivity wonder of
[01:31.09]the industrialized world, properly run companies
[01:34.35]maintain a nap room wherein the workers
[01:36.97]may refresh themselves. Even in America, rumor has it,
[01:40.50]the costly CEOs of giant corporations
[01:43.22]work sequestered in private suites,
[01:45.97]guarded by watchpersons,
[01:47.55]mainly so they can curl up unseen to
[01:50.32]sharpen their predatory powers with a quick snooze.
[01:53.43]A couple of recent presidents
[01:55.57]famous for their all-night energies
[01:57.65]kept up the pace by means of naps. Other presidents,
[02:01.27]less famous for energy, slept by day and night;
[02:04.85]woe to the unwary footstep
[02:07.24]that wakened Coolidge in the afternoon.
[02:09.36]This leaves the rest of us lackeys bolt upright,
[02:12.18]toughing it out, trying to focus on the computer screen,
[02:15.98]from time to time glancing furtively around
[02:18.52]to see if we were noticed.
[02:20.04]The modern office isn't designed for privacy,
[02:22.99]and most of our cubicles have no doors to close,
[02:25.94]only gaps in the portable partitions.
[02:28.71]Lay our heads down on the desk at the appropriate hour
[02:32.02]and we're exposed to any passing snitch
[02:34.94]who strolls the halls enforcing alertness.
[02:36.94]It's a wonder they don't walk around ringing bells
[02:39.61]and blowing trumpets from one till three.
[02:41.80]American employers do not see the afternoon forty winks
[02:45.67]as refreshing the creative wellsprings of mere employees.
[02:49.02]They see it as goofing off.
[02:50.75]But now, it's time to rethink the nap
[02:53.66]from both the corporate and the personal viewpoint.
[02:56.37]Bed is not a shameful, shiftless place to be by day,
[02:59.99]nor is it necessary to run a fever of 102 to deserve it.
[03:04.70]Bed can even be productive.
[03:07.28]The effortless horizontal body
[03:09.36]and the sensory deprivation of the quiet bedroom
[03:12.19]leave the mind free, even in sleep,
[03:14.79]to focus, to roam, sometimes to forge ahead.
[03:18.33]Knotty problems can unknot themselves as if by magic.
[03:21.99]Creative solutions can tiptoe across the coverlet
[03:25.25]and nestle onto the pillow of the napper,
[03:27.68]even while the black velvet paws of Morpheus
[03:30.79]lie closely over his eyes.
[03:32.65]He may wake half an hour later
[03:35.05]with the road ahead laid clear.
[03:37.43]Creativity doesn't come a running to
[03:40.21]those who toil and slave for her;
[03:42.15]she's as much the daughter of rest
[03:44.18]and play as of effort. Just because we're uncomfortable
[03:47.81]doesn't mean we're productive;
[03:49.62]just because we're comfortable doesn't mean we're lazy.
[03:53.35]Milton wrote Paradise Lost in bed. Winston Churchill,
[03:57.53]a prodigious producer, wrote all those
[04:00.53]large important histories in bed.
[04:02.57]Brandy bottle at the ready.
[04:04.54]No doubt when inspiration flagged and his thoughts
[04:07.22]refused to marshal, he took a nip and a nap.
[04:10.33]Now, there was a man who knew a thing
[04:13.14]or two about a good day's work. |