Nap time ZZZzzz

I am an insomniac. I have been since I was three years old. My incessant roaming during the night used to drive my then roommate, my sister, crazy. Over the years I have learned to cope with little sleep. (Insomnia also explains why I have seen so much crappy TV. See ET#2's last entry). Normally, I can get in at least a consecutive four hours of a very deep quality sleep. Which can be attested to by subsequent roommates who often had the unenviable job of shaking me awake to respond to a blaring fire alarm, or my father who was thwarted in his efforts to wake me in the mornings by vacuuming my room.

Lately, I have been able to only squeeze in an hour to an hour and half of sleep at a time. Even I have my limits, and this pattern has become increasingly exhausting. I follow the "good sleep hygiene" guidelines.: I don't exercise three hours prior to going to bed. I use the bed for sleeping only (sadly enough this is true). I meditate before sleeping. I try to reduce stress in my life. I drink a cups of warm milk. I have even gone as far as being prescribed Lunesta and Ambien CR, neither of which solved the problem.

But as always, I digress. What I really wanted to talk about is napping at work. I don't understand why "sleeping on the job" is such a bad thing. Because I have been so tired lately, I find myself craving that 15 minute siesta around 4:30pm. My old boss understood this phenomena, and brought in his old couch into the microscope room. He figured if you napped at work there was a greater chance you would work longer hours. He was wise.

Here at Longwood Medical Campus, there is nowhere for a student to take a nap. No student lounge, no unused dark room, no supply closet, no couches anywhere. I am forced to siesta at my desk. Others in my lab will sneak in a nap by slumping over their desk. K even stored an airplane pillow in his desk just for the occasion. I need to stretch out. So I normally put my feet on a stand underneath my desk, pull back my chair and lean my head back. While it is necessary for me to function for the day, it does have its drawbacks:

1) It is highly unattractive. I once awoke with a spittle of drool hanging down the rightside of my mouth.

2) I can never pretend I was simply trying to get a closer look at that paper I am hunched over. It is ridiculously obvious that I am napping. I have been busted numerous times, as my desk is in a high traffic area.

3) The nap is never fully restful, because of the constant worry of being caught by the big man.

What I want to do is buy one of those nap pods for the school. I would like a guilt-free 15 minute nap to refresh my brain. It would be a good use of my time because normally I am just surfing the internet for those 15 minutes anyway, pretending I am doing work. And after a nap, I think more clearly because instead focusing on the fact I am so tired I can focus on the task at hand.

Maybe napping is the ultimate solution for having a more efficient workplace. Workers would be happy, less careless, and stronger. What if our record trade deficit 725 billion dollars is not due to rising oil prices, but lack of naps? What if American kids are simply not sleeping enough, and in fact are not fundamentally more stupid than every other industrialized nation's children?

Naps could be the solution to all our problems!

(Disclaimer: I am typing furiously so my boss who has passed my desk 12 times in the past hour will think I am working on our paper. I am so tired I have no idea what I am writing right now. If only I had a nap pod right now....)