Counting sheep on the way to enlightenment: Why I nap, and why you should too

Naps get a bad rap in our society, writes opinion editor Clay Wirestone, probably because they connote laziness or idleness. But brief snoozes in fact do the opposite. (Getty Images)

There are a few activities in life I enjoy more than a nap.

Naps get a bad rap in our society, probably because they connote laziness or idleness. But in my experience, brief snoozes in fact do the opposite. They allow for more focused attention. They open the door to unusual problem-solving approaches. And if you eventually hit another wall, at least you’re slightly better rested.

Not all naps are created equal. If you sleep for only two hours one night and then fall asleep for most of an afternoon, that’s not really a nap. That’s making up for lost time.

No, I’m writing about an intentionally short period of closing your eyes and recharging.

My optimal nap is between 20 and 40 minutes. It’s long enough to allow myself to drift away, but not so long that I totally lose consciousness or momentum. If the nap ends and I have to remember where I am and what I’m doing, that nap was too long.

Oftentimes, I’ll nap because I’m either temporarily tired or a bit overwhelmed with the situation at hand. Those minutes spent behind the gray shade of my eyelids allow me to reset, reconsider and come into myself.

Words and phrases work their way into my mind as I settle down. The act of napping frequently turns into an impromptu brainstorming session, as I activate my phone to type various notes to myself. I can scroll through those notes now and read various ideas for columns, ledes that didn’t pan out, entire columns that dropped by the wayside.

“Destruction not easily reversible,” reads one optimistic phrase.

“No one else wanted to write about Trump,” reads another one, oddly enough.

“In the darkest timeline, we have already lost this state and country” begins an entire column that I hope won’t appear anytime soon.

You get the idea. Something about laying back and clearing out my conscious mind allows words and thoughts to congeal. You have to be receptive, of course; when I wrote less frequently I would tune out these transmissions. Not today. I’ve decided they’re my brain giving me free content.

On a serious level, we all need more sleep. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of Kansans — 36.7% of us — went without adequate sleep in 2022. That’s defined as less than seven hours per night.

If you’re like me, I know your response: Somebody’s getting seven hours of sleep per night?

The problem with achieving a solid seven or eight hours of shuteye is that it feels like such a commitment. I love to sleep, don’t get me wrong, but what if you remember an important task that needs completing? What if you need to write a column for the next day? What if your child’s entire science fair project about algae hasn’t even been conceived of, much less built?

Here’s my point (and I do have one): We should treat sleep more casually. Let’s drop the hangups. Take a nap if we need one, sleep a little later if we need to. Be good to ourselves and our bodies, and the unconscious brains that run everything from the top.

Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go lie down.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.