I love naps. I love to be able to climb back into bed in the middle of the day and lay down and drift off to sleep. Nothing is better than the sun shining in on my bed and warming me all over and allowing me to close my eyes, forget all my worries, and sleep. It doesn’t matter if I get to sleep for an hour or three or four, a nap makes me a better person.
My kids don’t always get it. Sometimes I can tell it puts them out. But the older they get the more I note that they are learning to love those naps as much as I do. I do think that my oldest son drives over 3 hours home so that he can get a good nap in.
I come by it honest. You see, I’m a Pierce. A Pierce loves to sleep. It’s part of our heritage. We used to laugh as young adults when my brother, sister and I used to comment how others didn’t understand our need to sleep during the middle of the day. We knew that it was in our blood and some days just had to be done. Both of our parents napped. Mama could nap every day, and most days did. I still remember being tiny little and being “put down” for a nap. Mama would put my sister, my brother, and me in her bed. She would stretch her arms out like she was holding us but really she was holding us down. We didn’t want a nap, we didn’t need a nap. Years later we realized that she was the one who needed a nap and couldn’t get one if we were awake. So she would do that. After awhile we would wait until she was sound asleep and then peel her arms off of us and get up and play. If she woke up we would always tell her that we had napped but had just gotten up. Sometimes that worked. Sometimes we got in trouble. One thing I knew though that she was a lot nicer on days that she got her nap. Daddy napped too. But he napped only on the weekends. Daddy worked very hard, sometimes at two jobs. But that allowed Mama to stay home with us. I guess that’s just the way things were done then. But we weren’t allowed to bother Daddy or wake him up. In fact, if you did you had better have a good excuse.
I can remember all through my childhood napping. Mama loved to clean house on Saturday mornings. She always said that if we all chipped in and got the housework done then we would all be free to do whatever we wanted. It was her goal to have the house clean by noon. If you know me you know that I think a clean house is overrated. It comes from all the years of having to clean. I remember one Saturday when I had been given a list of chores to do and found a way down into the basement onto a spare bed we had set up and laid across it. Mama came down and I pretended to be asleep. It didn’t take a few minutes of being quiet that I actually did fall asleep. When I got up I got chewed out for dissing my chores. Mama had to do them. I still feel guilty about that but I’m sure it was something I really didn’t want to do or I wouldn’t have found a way out of it.
When I had children I came to realize the value of a nap. And I also came to realize why in the world most infants are blessed with two parents. You see, one has to stay awake with the baby to allow the other to sleep. People will always give you the advice to sleep whenever the baby does in order to take advantage of their downtime. That doesn’t work. Usually once the newborn goes to sleep parents need to take advantage of that to get a shower or eat a real meal or do a little bit of housework. And a newborn doesn’t sleep that long. So by the time you finally get a chance to lie down for a few minutes and get comfortable enough to sleep the newborn is awake again. That’s when it becomes frustrating. Twenty-four/seven of that for new parents and it doesn’t take much to make anyone snap. But on the most part I was very lucky as a new mother. It seemed that I had a whole lot of support. And I did. From my husband to my family to my friends. I do feel sorry for those though who don’t get that kind of support. As my children aged my need for a nap increased. It seemed that we were always on the go and sometimes I just needed to land and either sit or lie down and close my eyes. It wouldn’t take much to put me to sleep.
I have never been one who could nap just anywhere though. I mean, yes, I can catch twenty winks waiting in a doctor’s office or in the drive-thru line at the bank. It really irritates me when people blow their horn at me and wake me just because the car in front of me moved. I have been known to fall asleep in my car during lunch if I didn’t get much sleep the night before. But I have never been one who could sit on the couch watching TV and fall sound asleep. I know a lot of men who can do that. But I need to be horizontal. If I’m not horizontal then I just can’t get comfortable enough to go into a deep sleep. But one thing I can do is watch TV and sleep. Honestly, I can. I think that’s because my husband has to have that noise on all night long. So, I’ve developed the habit. I can wake throughout the night, or throughout my nap and know exactly if someone has turned the channel or pick up the show I was watching in a heartbeat. I mean last night I was watching a rerun of Twilight, fell asleep when Bella was talking with Jacob on the beach, and woke up to her talking with Edward in the hospital. It does help that I know a lot of the things I watch by heart. I’m like that. I only like to watch movies I’ve seen before. That way I know if I like them and know when the good parts come in. But that’s another blog post. I get really put out when I wake up and the Food Network is on some stupid show. I know then that Jimmy came in, flipped the channel and promptly fell asleep. I guess we all have the shows that put us to sleep. Personally, if I’m having a hard time falling asleep then I flip over to an episode of Dateline or Law and Order. I have to make sure I catch Law and Order before I have to solve the crime, or after they’ve figured out who has done it because I have a tendency to have to go to work solving the crime and that will keep me up. For instance, I just can’t fall asleep to an episode of CSI, unless I’ve seen it too many times. I simply have to solve that crime.
Which takes me back to loving naps and you. I saw that printed on a sign and I thought it would be a wonderful anniversary present for Jimmy. We’ll be married 20 years this year so that means that we’ve probably taken over 1000 naps together. We both have a tendency to take a nap on Sunday afternoons. Early in our relationship I thought taking a nap with the one you loved was nothing but romantic. I guess it was, then. Now, we sleep in this huge king bed where I couldn’t find him if I wanted to, much less touch him. We both snore. We both sleep with our mouths open. I’m sure we did all of that 20 years ago. Back then it was cute. Now, it’s just gross. I don’t want anyone staring at me while I’m sleeping. But I can remember lots of naps where I would wake up first and just watch him sleep. Now, when I wake up I’m trying to find that movie I was watching since he flipped the TV over to the Food Network. First, I have to remember what movie I was watching. And of course, I have to get on Facebook or Twitter to see what I missed in that hour or two when I wasn’t following what everyone I’ve ever met was in the process of doing. Jimmy doesn’t understand that. But he sure does understand about turning over and facing his side of our room while “watching” “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”
I’ve never been into spooning. I think that’s because of my mother holding me down while she took a nap when I was four or five years old. I like my side of the bed. I like to touch, but I’d rather tangle my feet than bury my head into the chest of the man I love. The way I sleep if I was to do that I’d probably not wake up. I would be face-down and not have an air hole. My daughter was questioning someone sleeping with a pillow over their head. I told her that I do that all the time. I like to be completely covered, with a small air hole out of the blankets or pillow. I’m warmer that way. Of course, I don’t wake up that way. Since I’ve gone through menopause I go to sleep with an electric blanket, a quilt and a comforter. Somewhere throughout the night I wake up with the quilt covering my feet, no other blankets and no clothes. Most of the time I’m running to the bathroom because that is what woke me up wondering where in the world my gown and sweatshirt went to. I have gotten used to lying down for a nap in my clothes because they are harder to swing off in my sleep. So most of the time it’s the hot flash that is waking me up from a nap, not my bladder.
But of all days that I could take a nap my favorite has to be Sunday. I boast that I can get up, go to church, come home and eat breakfast and be back in bed before most people are up to go to church. I like going to early Mass. I like a big breakfast on Sunday. And I absolutely love going back to bed. I’ll wake up anywhere from 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, ready to greet the day. I’m always in such a better mood then.