Do you ever nap? 

Do you take a morning or afternoon snooze?

 

 

I can easily summon an image of Grandma Fannie Longenecker flopping down in a lounge chair with her feet elevated usually after her noon meal. When her feet, laced up in black heels had a chance to rest, she rose up with the observation, “Now that’ll get me through the rest of the afternoon.” Twenty minutes was usually all it took to get her batteries recharged. Then she’d step into her kitchen to begin stirring up home-made vegetable soup or pot-pie in the winter. In the summer, she may trot out to the garden to pick strawberries or beans. I don’t believe she ever thought her nap was a waste of time.

***

1. Bob Gass in The Word for You Today notes, “God has built specific triggers into our bodies to let us know when it’s time to escape consciousness.” And wise people listen to these clues.

 

2. Gass notes that “Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Winston Churchill are among history’s most famous power nappers.”

 

3. He continues, “Eyelids tend to droop around 2:00 p.m. Why? The elevator muscle, which constantly contracts to keep your eyelids open, . . . begs for a break. And a chemical called adenosine, which collects in your brain when you’re awake, piles up and makes you feel drowsy.”

 

4. During a power nap, adenosine disperses,” bringing relief.

 

5. People “who nap for at least thirty minutes daily, three times weekly, are one-third less likely to die from heart disease,” according to the Annals of Internal Medicine. (The researcher was referring to short rather than long naps, which may produce different results.)

6. “During a brief nap, our brains actually keep working to resolve problems and form new ideas,” according to neuroscientist Dr. William Fishbein. ”This helps explain why Mozart professes to have composed music in his dreams.”

 

7. And according to Gass, other studies “show a little extra sleep can assist with weight control—which means you can lose as you snooze!” When we sleep, our body stores less Ghrelin, a hormone produced in our intestines, [which] “tells us when we are hungry and triggers cravings for sweet, salt food, and starches”—food we should eat in moderation.

 

8. Scripture tells us, “When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.”   Proverbs 3:24, New International Version

 

9. I say, take a power nap to shake your mental Etch-a-Sketch. Then begin again with a fresh screen when you wake up.

March is a new month
Shake your Etch-A-Sketch screen now
It’s time to start fresh!

                           ~ MLB    March 2021

 

 

Feline photos, courtesy of Crista Joy Dalton

 

 

ALERT! My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir is available for pre-order from Amazon here.


 

 

Do you nap? Do you have a special nook for napping?

Can you recall solving a problem or feeling more creative after a nap?

Please share your secrets here.