My mother used to take naps when I was growing up.
I hated it.
I hated that we had to be quiet. I hated that we had to wait for her to get up to eat. I hated that I had to tell people who called or came to the door that my mom was sleeping in the middle of the day.
Other moms didn’t nap.
At least, that’s what I assumed. I never actually asked my friends this, because you don’t ever take the time when you’re young to find out for sure if you’re just as not-like-everyone-else as you think you are. It’s best at that age to just assume you are the only one and carry on with the all the angst worthy of your solo plight.
Before I resented my mother’s naps, I resented my own. I didn’t sleep during the day as a baby (much to my poor mother’s horror), and I held on to my disdain for naps through my childhood. Any school-aged child will tell you that naps are for babies and should only be used as the most severe form of punishment for younger siblings.
Anyway, my point is that I’ve known since I was an infant that naps were bad.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that kids are crazy. You’re thinking that it would be lovely if someone forced you to take a nap every day. You’re thinking babies and kids don’t know how good they have it and that – knowing nod to all the mothers in the room – someday they’ll wish they got to take a nap every day.
But I have a confession to make:
I take a nap almost every single day.
Just like my mother, I find that by about 3 in the afternoon, I’m completely and hopelessly drained and the only thing I can accomplish successfully is reading until I fall asleep.
And I hate it.
I struggle with finding my napping habit shameful. I fear that it’s a sign of my inherent weakness as a human being. I’m afraid that maybe it means I’m lazy.
And I’m almost sure I’m the only one.
But maybe…
Do you nap?
About Britt Reints
I nap about twice a month… Usually around that time of the month.
I hate napping because I don’t want to waste the day, but can’t find the energy to do anything else..
I think it has to do with bloodsugar levels.
Twitter Name: Rhonda K - Ipad
I hated when my parents napped as well. I hate it when my husband naps now. I am almost 40 and even though I could probably use a nap every day, I’m still not a napper…partly because I work out of the home and partly because maybe I’m afraid I’ll miss something if I’m asleep. I DO, however, love it when my children nap.
Also, just wanted to say that I had my cortisone levels checked a year ago. My levels were bottoming out at around 3:00, the same time in which I feel like I could pass out. They also peak at around 3:00 a.m. when I should be still asleep but my body is trying to tell me to wake up. HRT has been something that helped me cope with the afternoon blahs.
Just like when you were a kid, you aren’t the only one! I guarantee that some of your friends’ moms napped, too, and so do I.
If naps are shameful, then there are entire cultures that are based on shame…and I don’t think that’s the case. There’s nothing wrong with a good nap in my book and I hope you can learn to embrace them!!
Twitter Name: CountessMo
I’m a napper and proud of it, personally. I don’t necessarily nap everyday (largely depends on what’s going on) but if I’m tired, and I’m in a position where I can take a nap, I certainly do.
Twitter Name: nikkiana
I HATED naps as a child (well, once I was old enough to know that I was napping) and once wrote a story that I shared at parent story day about how my mother used to discipline me if I didn’t take a nap (this was a several years after the napping ended). I am horrified by my 2nd grade self. In my defense, I thought it was funny.
Now I only nap when I’m pregnant (well, not so much now that I’m pregnant *and have a child*) and even that has to be forced on me. Buuuuut I’m not ashamed. Naps are amazing.
Dude, I need a nap every dang day. And if I don’t get one? WATCH OUT. Didn’t mind them as kids, don’t mind them now!
Twitter Name: thedgoddess
I have napped almost every single day since my first child was born 7 years ago. Now that all three kids are (mostly) sleeping through the night, I can occasionally make it through the day without one.
I love a nap, but I hate that during the 2 hours my kids are quiet (the older two will read in their room or play quietly, or dissemble the kitchen table QUIETLY, whatever, I’m sleeping) but I HATE that those two hours aren’t used every SINGLE day for writing. And I feel so guilty about working while they are awake and need my attention. If I would write while they rest I wouldn’t have to stay up so freaking late working at night. And maybe I wouldn’t HAVE to nap.
Honestly, no matter what I’ve tried I’m useless between 2 and 4pm.
Twitter Name: robinobryant
I have done quite a bit of reading about naps and sleep cycles as I have had my trials and tribulations surrounding sleep and I have come to the conclusion that almost everybody gets really tired around 3pm and that almost everybody can benefit from a nap. Also, a high protein snack can help snap you out of it, if you can’t find the right circumstances to have a nap. Interestingly enough though, most “experts” seem to think adults only need about a 30 minute nap. I think napping should be as mandatory as a lunch hour. I keep reading that companies like Google (or one like them anyway) have actual napping rooms for their employees.
Whatever. I say “Bring back the Nap!”
Even when I’m at work. Actually it’s much easier to nod off at my desk than it is on the weekend when the damn child will not nap!
Twitter Name: therealneeroc
::headkeyboard::
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Huh, what? I nap. Rather often. In fact, this past year, when my daughter brought home that silly questionnaire kids fill out for fathers/mothers day about the respective parent, I discovered this:
When Mommy has free time, her favorite thing to do is ______lay down______.
Damn right.
Twitter Name: qandamama
When my kids were younger and getting me up at gawd awful hours yes, I napped! (In fact I always napped, used to come home, right up until graduating HS, and crawl in bed.
Thankfully (with a huge vested interest on my part) my kids all napped right up till grade one. With their Mom ;)
Oh my. I could have written this myself. Hated it when my mom napped. Wouldn’t nap or go to bed early as a baby or child. Had kids and finally figured out why “Grown-ups were always so tired,” when I was a kid. I need a nap almost every single day and I still resent myself for it. I have 2 little night owls that don’t care for naps or going to bed. Every time I nap, I feel guilty that I wasn’t awake doing something more productive…trying to get on a better sleep schedule but it’s not an easy thing to do. AnyyyyWAY. Thank you. Now I know I’m not the only one.
Twitter Name: HeatherSchiavo
I nap whenever I can manage it.
Twitter Name: dragondream
Oh my gosh, do I ever nap. I, like you, nap every single day when I come home from work. Even when I didn’t have kids, I napped as soon as I walked in the door after work, sometimes on the couch, sometimes in my room. I seriously do pretty much every single day too! My mom also napped every day, and I too thought it was just my mom who napped! I never complained because that’s usually when we did whatever we weren’t allowed to do when we were up! Please don’t feel nap guilt!
I’m an occasional (and sometimes more than occasional) napper…mostly because I stay up super late and it eventually catches up with me.
And the day before my period, when it’s a struggle to even stay upright, it’s 100% guaranteed that I WILL fall asleep, usually 3 seconds after my husband walks in the door from work.
There’s no shame in the nap game, although I never liked it when my mom napped either.
Twitter Name: izzymom
I don’t really nap… unless it’s when I’m sleeping beside a child of mine who is napping. I am so weird, if I nap I wake up feeling guilty and more tired than before and my heart starts beating fast.. again, I am SO weird. :)
I nap! I nap with wild abandon! I REVEL in my naps! Naps for everyone!
I used to avoid the nap. The nap used to make me feel guilty, like I wasn’t worthy of it, like I should be working harder, doing more, accomplishing instead of sleeping. That’s defeatist talk and often I would get LESS done because I was so tired.
Now when I feel the urge in the afternoon, I nap. I nap peacefully, serenely, with complete lack of guilt, and I wake feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of my night.
I have read a lot about naps over the past year or two and research really supports napping. 20-30 minutes is what seems to be recommended, and it doesn’t have to be SLEEP every time either; it can just be REST. But it really does seem to refresh us.
Embrace the nap!
Twitter Name: milliondreammom
I do nap every time I get the chance. I won’t say every day, but often. My daughter isn’t old enough for me to trust her to not burn the house down if she is awake when I am not.
Personally I think naps are a wonderful luxury and I wouldn’t give them up unless I had to.
Twitter Name: DonnaMcKee
I nap almost every day. It’s a beautiful, wonderful thing. ;)
Being currently unemployed, I can nap whenever my body tells me to!
I fully understand that 3pm feeling. I think its commonplace and its always a time of day I have found it hard to deal with, in a working environment.
Twitter Name: dudgeoh
Nap? I wish!
I get hit with this sleepy drained feeling too but around 10am. Sometimes I give in, but mostly I have to push through it. When I do nap, I feel super guilty too.
Twitter Name: Ronald Mattocks
I nap when I can. I used to physically need a nap every single day – I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) – but I did get put on a pill that actually helps me wake up feeling refreshed after sleeping all night, so it’s not as pressing to nap anymore.
But I do feel so much better after napping. You know what I mean? Less cranky, more productive… It shouldn’t be something to feel guilty about if it makes you better at the things you need to do each day.
Twitter Name: CutestKidEver
Sometimes it feels like Motherhood is a game where the mom who ends up most tired, frazzled, unfulfilled, and at her wit’s end wins. Why do we do this to ourselves?
If your kids are safe and everything is relatively provided for, then napping should NOT be a source of guilt.
I nap nearly every day, and I find it to be almost necessary for my sanity. Naps are even sometimes spiritual moments for me, leaving me refreshed and renewed. My kids totally understand this, and although I’m sure it bugs them sometimes to have to fend for themselves, in reality, they kind of like the freedom.
I bet we sometimes trick ourselves into thinking other moms don’t have piles of laundry or dirty dishes on the counter, either. But guess what? They do! And you can clearly see from the comments here that other moms nap as well.
No guilt, just sleep! Enjoy. :)
Twitter Name: StaceyNerdin
Leonardo Da Vinci, napper
Thomas Edison, napper
Winston Churchill, napper
JFK, napper
Eleanor Roosevelt, napper
Enough said.
P.S. – I love my naps and they helped save my sanity when I had PPD.
Twitter Name: msmegan
I love, love, love naps! If I could take one every day, I would. Because I work a full-time job during the week, I have to settle for weekend napping. I’ve been known to take more than one nap on a Saturday or Sunday.
Twitter Name: average_jane
I love naps, and I always fit naps in on the weekends. I just wish a had a good place to nap at work! I envy people who have a sofa in their office … if I had one, I would sleep through my lunch break EVERY DAY and it would be AWESOME!
Viva la nap!
Twitter Name: escameron
I absolutely love naps! Love them. And I need one most days. I am off work at 3:30 and I usually head home for a quick nap. Then I get on with my evening routine.
Twitter Name: perkyerky
I don’t even have kids and I nap. I love to nap. If I could nap every day, right around 3, I would do it. I would do it even if it meant I had to curl up under my desk. I don’t mind napping on the floor. Some of my best naps have been on floors. Sometimes the nap takes over and goes on way too long and I can’t resurface. Usually, though, I can get a nice 30 – 60 minutes of reading, rest and actual sleep and my life is a million times better. Maybe two million.
Do you think anyone will notice if I crawl under my desk right now? I think I’m inspired.
Twitter Name: Kizzbeth
Embrace the nap. See it as more of a siesta, a cultural thing and less of a oppression by the man kind of thing. I nap when I can and typically when at least one of my kids is napping as well. Plus think of how late you can stay up then!
Twitter Name: funkyfoodtrisha
I nap. Some people will judge me because I don’t have kids, and “why are you so tired if you don’t have kids?” but whatever. I still work, cook, clean, play softball, exercise daily, and I don’t drink coffee to stay awake. I have always been a napper – not every day by any means, but probably 3 times a week for 15 to 45 minutes. It keeps me sane and productive.
I was napping today by 11 am. For real. The caffeine never did do the trick so I napped.
I nap often. Life is tough and napping helps recharge the batteries. My kids are teenagers and dont need me to wait on them anymore, so I have time in the afternoon to disappear for a couple or hours and catch some zzz’s! I wouldnt be so hard on yourself!
Twitter Name: mamatink123
I was told to sleep when the baby sleeps. 4 years on I am taking this Very Seriously.
I nap daily. When go back to work next month I’m SCREWED.
Twitter Name: NearlyNQ
I used to nap on and off all day on Saturdays and wondered what the heck was wrong with me. I attributed it to working, raising 3 small kids, etc. 2 1/2 years ago I was diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency which I got under control. Now I rarely nap.
3pm is my low time. I do not nap but I wish I did. It is good for you. Scientific fact!
Twitter Name: NorthWestMommy
Silly girl. Everyone naps. Except kids 5 and up. Because they’re too big for that shit. What do people do who work for other people? I shudder to think!
Twitter Name: Susan Payton
I am 150 percent for adults napping. Anyone who says they shouldn’t is just pissed off because they don’t get to.
Twitter Name: profkrg