Sunday, January 06, 2008

Hit The Sack(1st Yodaism of 2008)

Jason Alexander's Seinfeld character George Costanza once said, ~I love a good nap. Sometimes its the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning.~ A study done by the Harvard School of Public Health found that napping is beneficial when they do not last longer than 30 minutes. The study showed that nearly 24,000 people found that those who regularly took afternoon naps were nearly 40 percent less likely to die from heart disease than non-nappers. Let me ask you this question, how many of you take time out the day whether it's on your lunch break at work or wherever the case may be for you to have a nice nap? I think each and every one of you can agree with me when I say taking a nap is just one of those little things in life you look forward to, especially when you get older.

As said before, a nap is something we all look forward to taking during any given day, especially when we get older. Why? Essentially, it's a great stress reliever as certain things in life either at home, work, in a relationship, or simply out and about get to you to a point where it drains you physically, emotionally, mentally, as well as, spiritually causing you not to be able to function clearly leaving you absolutely cranky. It would be safe to say that there are some of you right now who are thinking about taking a nap, getting into bed, resting your head on the cool side of the pillow, pulling the covers over you, and I would also guess you're yawning at the moment aren't you? STOP! Sorry about that...if you could wait for a few minutes to read this then you can drift off into la la land.

Without a doubt, one of the greatest things to do after eating a big meal is taking a nap because you're so full, which is witnessed by one's drooping eyelids. For it's always a good day or night when you eat out and depending on whether or not you have anything planned/important to do afterwards you take a nap. However, never plan on eating a big meal when you know you're either going to class or work afterwards because you'll not only pay for it later by fighting with yourself to stay awake, but you may possibly get chewed out for nodding off to where you're heard snoring. Let me tell you something, it's an embarrassing situation indeed when you find yourself in the spotlight, so to speak, when you're woken up by a teacher/professor/boss, but for the most part it was well worth it.

If you think about it, taking a nap is something that can be considered a mistake to do particularly if you're someone of seemingly great importance. What do I mean? Well, think back to circa 1992. The Vice Presidential Debate between Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and the late Admiral James Stockdale. It was during this debate that an unprepared James Stockdale not only made a fool of himself by asking who he was but during the debate he decided to take a nap while standing at the podium. Now, the ramifications of this embarrassing faux pas didn't help Ross Perot's candidacy for the White House. Of course, comedians and comedy sketch shows like Saturday Night Live made light of the situation making it an absolutely worthwhile period in political satire to watch in the 90's.

In retrospect, as adults our perspective tends to change about naps from our days as little kids who simply dreaded going to bed in the middle of the day. In some aspect, it seemed like a punishment handed down to us by our mean parent(s) and now it is something we want to have in order to recharge the batteries possibly after working an early morning shift at work. Thinking about it, it's funny how kids cry when they don't want to take a nap because they still want to play and yet when it comes to us as adults we cry when we want to take a nap because we in all intents and purposes 'played' practically the whole day. In the end, the nap is a very underrated thing that should be cherished and with that said I'm going to hit the sack before I have to go to work again in a couple of hours.

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