It is time we harnessed the power of a nap (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

It is time we harnessed the power of a nap

3:56pm Tuesday 14th April 2009

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AM I the only one who has felt exhausted since the clocks went forward?

You wouldn’t think that a lost hour could make such a lot of difference but I’ve so whacked ever since I’m beginning to wonder whether I’m suffering from narcolepsy.

Even after a good ten hours, I feel like I’ve been to an all-night rave.

I’ve been so shattered I’ve missed National Nap at Work Week, having been too sleepy to open an e-mail letting me know of the event. I was also too tired to catch National Bed Month.

I would have taken full advantage of these events and the recommended extra kipping time. I probably would have gone so far as to order the special inflatable bed — yes, in these crazy times there really is one on the market — to install next to your desk for a quick 20 minutes shut eye.

Short naps can do more to revive us than a long lie-in. Sleep experts (I could do that, gizza job), claim a quick nap helps to re-energise the brain and reduce sleepiness.

They say rather than sleeping in, the way to beat mid-afternoon drowsiness is to take a ten-minute ‘power nap’.

In an ideal world, maybe, but in our office the only place to avoid interruption is the toilet – I don’t want my colleagues to find me slumped in an unseemly manner over the cistern.

The UK doesn’t cater for nodding off in the middle of the day. Yet in countries like Spain life revolves around it.

On a visit to Madrid, I couldn’t get my head around the fact that workers broke off for the entire afternoon, resuming in the evening.

What do people who live miles from the office do in the in-between times I asked, and was told that many firms provide special rooms where they can enjoy a post-lunch siesta. It’s common in the USA too.

This wouldn’t suit me. Snoozing during the day leaves me groggy. I dream vividly, and would find it hard to concentrate on work, having been caressed by Richard Gere in his Bel Aire penthouse just moments before.

There is a good case for napping, with many great artists, leaders and inventors, including Leonardo da Vinci, Brahms and Churchill, advocating it.

But despite having an overwhelming urge to drop off — put me in an afternoon meeting and I could sleep for England — we can’t.

There’s always too much to do, most of us are too busy to stop everything for a quick cat-nap.

And that’s a ridiculous expression to describe a very short sleep — with our cat, it’s always a good eight hours.

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