Yesterday I was off from work, I did various errands and things during the first part of the day. Around 2 o'clock or so I decided to take a nap. I live near the downtown of a small city. As I got horizontal and comfy, the sound of the occasional vehicle going by was not distracting, more like low-key white noise that seemed to help me drift off into a -not quite- sleep....
A painting of a young woman taking a siesta. (The hammock, Gustave Courbet (1844).
I went in and out of being awake enough to hear things; crows cawing, perhaps a feint human voice coming up from the streets below, and then going into a deeper almost sleep. When I got up, at first I thought maybe I had fallen asleep for an hour and a half or so, but it had just been 45 minutes--the perfect length of time for nap, although if it stretches longer, no problem.
A great time for siestas is while on vacation. I remember camping trips where lying down in the tent for a mid afternoon nap was an integral part of the day. A friend, who would go on yearly late summer trip with her sister to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, would include a daily afternoon nap as part of the experience. A good siesta allows one to experience a little of the day light hours in a soft and fuzzy way. That one half-hour to hour break our consciousness takes is a very human-centered thing to do.
I did a some research for this diary-- all kinds of links about the benefits of napping, power-napping, napping in various cultures etc., but realized that a nap is not about increasing productivity or your alertness. It is about giving in to being human; no rewards other than the experience itself.