When on earth does President Trump get the time to nap?
I only ask because he seems to be packing a lot into his days at the moment. Signing executive orders, tearing up trade agreements, upsetting all those poor sensitive souls in the media, calling Putin for his regular catch-ups, scouring the internet for fake news, styling his hair… the man never stops.
With such a busy schedule, it’s unlikely that he gets the time to lie down on the couch in the Oval Office. And if that is the case, then I would expect his closest confidants to be a little worried. He is 70, after all. But seeing as he is from New York – the city that apparently never sleeps – perhaps he feels that he doesn’t need a nap. That, however, would be a grave mistake.
All Mr. Trump has to do is look back at how some of history’s most hard-pressed leaders have benefited from enjoying some much-needed sleep during the day. Winston Churchill, JFK, and Ronald Reagan are just a handful of powerful men who put great faith in some afternoon rest. And I’m sure Mr. Trump would agree that they had more to contend with than he currently does. Building a wall at the Mexican border and installing travel bans hardly equate to battling Hitler or keeping a lid on the Red Menace.
But it’s not just Prime Ministers, Presidents and megalomaniac Emperors that need to catch a bit of shut-eye in the afternoon. Of course, children and the elderly benefit from sleeping during the day. But if the truth be told, then most of us need to sleep after lunch.
Aviva, the insurance company, conducted a survey last year, which found that one in four adults in the UK would like to sleep better at night, making the UK the world’s most sleep deprived nation. Things are so bad that two in five people claim to be too tired to exercise.
I would classify myself as one of those people who does not get enough sleep. Taking a leaf out of my father’s book, I regularly have a weekend drzemka, either on the sofa or in the passenger seat of the car. My wife isn’t always best pleased that I decide to drift off on an afternoon, but when the children have worn me out and I’ve had a heavy lunch, then what option do I have? And anyway, napping is good for you.
According to the National Sleep Foundation in America, naps boost alertness and improve performance. There’s just a slight catch. You can’t just drift off and wake up whenever you want. You have to time it right.
A 20-minute snooze, which is called a ‘stage two’ nap by the slumber experts at the foundation, is ideal if you want to enhance your motor skills and attention. If you stay asleep for longer, ideally between an hour to 90 minutes, then you drift into Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, which can help you solve any creative problems you’ve been having. This latter point seems to have been proved by many ingenious men, such as Thomas Edison. A serial napper, he managed to dream up with the light bulb and the motion picture, as well as over a thousand other inventions.
Anything in between those two time periods however, and you end up waking up groggy and grumpy. But it’s not just important that you set your alarm when napping. You also need close your eyes at the right time – between 1:00pm and 3:00pm. That’s because your blood sugar and energy start to dip after lunch.
I would also recommend that you fall asleep in the right environment. A book usually works, as does having the radio softly crackling away in the background. Watching the television is also a sure-fire soporific activity. Especially if you’re tuned into a channel showing the House of Lords debating Trump’s State visit to the UK.
Despite all the clear benefits that can be gained from dozing during the day, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, threatened Spain with a siesta ban last year. In a quite remarkable speech, he talked of wanting to shorten the working day so that workers could get home earlier. His also explained that he wanted to get rid of the three-hour “disruption” that the Spanish economy “suffers” from in the afternoon.
Given everything that President Trump stands for, it’s understandable, although unfortunate, that he may not want to entertain the idea of a nap. But the idea of a Mediterranean political leader wanting to strip his electorate of their right to forty winks is simply unconscionable.
How on earth he got elected for a second term with policy ideas like that, I have no idea.
This post first appeared in Tydzien Polski
I only ask because he seems to be packing a lot into his days at the moment. Signing executive orders, tearing up trade agreements, upsetting all those poor sensitive souls in the media, calling Putin for his regular catch-ups, scouring the internet for fake news, styling his hair… the man never stops.
With such a busy schedule, it’s unlikely that he gets the time to lie down on the couch in the Oval Office. And if that is the case, then I would expect his closest confidants to be a little worried. He is 70, after all. But seeing as he is from New York – the city that apparently never sleeps – perhaps he feels that he doesn’t need a nap. That, however, would be a grave mistake.
All Mr. Trump has to do is look back at how some of history’s most hard-pressed leaders have benefited from enjoying some much-needed sleep during the day. Winston Churchill, JFK, and Ronald Reagan are just a handful of powerful men who put great faith in some afternoon rest. And I’m sure Mr. Trump would agree that they had more to contend with than he currently does. Building a wall at the Mexican border and installing travel bans hardly equate to battling Hitler or keeping a lid on the Red Menace.
But it’s not just Prime Ministers, Presidents and megalomaniac Emperors that need to catch a bit of shut-eye in the afternoon. Of course, children and the elderly benefit from sleeping during the day. But if the truth be told, then most of us need to sleep after lunch.
Aviva, the insurance company, conducted a survey last year, which found that one in four adults in the UK would like to sleep better at night, making the UK the world’s most sleep deprived nation. Things are so bad that two in five people claim to be too tired to exercise.
I would classify myself as one of those people who does not get enough sleep. Taking a leaf out of my father’s book, I regularly have a weekend drzemka, either on the sofa or in the passenger seat of the car. My wife isn’t always best pleased that I decide to drift off on an afternoon, but when the children have worn me out and I’ve had a heavy lunch, then what option do I have? And anyway, napping is good for you.
According to the National Sleep Foundation in America, naps boost alertness and improve performance. There’s just a slight catch. You can’t just drift off and wake up whenever you want. You have to time it right.
A 20-minute snooze, which is called a ‘stage two’ nap by the slumber experts at the foundation, is ideal if you want to enhance your motor skills and attention. If you stay asleep for longer, ideally between an hour to 90 minutes, then you drift into Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, which can help you solve any creative problems you’ve been having. This latter point seems to have been proved by many ingenious men, such as Thomas Edison. A serial napper, he managed to dream up with the light bulb and the motion picture, as well as over a thousand other inventions.
Anything in between those two time periods however, and you end up waking up groggy and grumpy. But it’s not just important that you set your alarm when napping. You also need close your eyes at the right time – between 1:00pm and 3:00pm. That’s because your blood sugar and energy start to dip after lunch.
I would also recommend that you fall asleep in the right environment. A book usually works, as does having the radio softly crackling away in the background. Watching the television is also a sure-fire soporific activity. Especially if you’re tuned into a channel showing the House of Lords debating Trump’s State visit to the UK.
Despite all the clear benefits that can be gained from dozing during the day, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, threatened Spain with a siesta ban last year. In a quite remarkable speech, he talked of wanting to shorten the working day so that workers could get home earlier. His also explained that he wanted to get rid of the three-hour “disruption” that the Spanish economy “suffers” from in the afternoon.
Given everything that President Trump stands for, it’s understandable, although unfortunate, that he may not want to entertain the idea of a nap. But the idea of a Mediterranean political leader wanting to strip his electorate of their right to forty winks is simply unconscionable.
How on earth he got elected for a second term with policy ideas like that, I have no idea.
This post first appeared in Tydzien Polski
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