What is this world coming to?
Kindergartens are eliminating nap time, and with it the tradition of rows of kids sleeping on mats on the floor. Even Spaniards are skipping the afternoon siesta.
People worldwide are sleeping less and less. Five hours a night, out of a recommended seven or eight, is common. Sleep deprivation increasingly is the norm.
Doctors have a name for what's going on: People are TATT (or "tired all the time"). So it's nice to see that sleep researchers, at least, have evidence that makes the case for the afternoon nap.
A 20- to 90-minute midafternoon nap helps consolidate learning. The brain needs sleep to incorporate newly learned skills. As Dr. William Fishbein, a cognitive neuroscientist at the City University of New York, put it: "Not only do we need to remember to sleep, but most certainly, we sleep to remember."
Dr. Sara Mednick writes in her book "Take a Nap! Change Your Life" that power-napping can help improve your health and sex life, slim your waist and boost work performance.
What better inducement do we need to nap?
Some countries are trying to buck the sleep deprivation trend. Workaholic Japan now boasts "nap salons" where workers can take a nap on a daybed for a small fee, and stores sell "desk pillows" for in-office napping.
Hey, naps might even help in a down economy with energy savings. For example, in Korea and Taiwan, many companies turn off the lights at lunchtime. So does Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan. (U.S. automakers, take note.)
The idea, however, does not seem to be catching on in the United States. U.S. News and World Report noted in a March 2007 story that 75 percent of U.S. companies do not allow napping.
Maybe we'll launch a crusade to incorporate napping into the American workplace. But it will have to wait a while. At the moment, there are more pressing matters. Where did we put that desk pillow, anyway?
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