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Comment by mellavora | Hacker News Reader

Churchill also saw the value of the nap:

“Nature has not intended mankind to work from eight in the morning until midnight without that refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts twenty minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces… Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one — well, at least one and a half,”

-- The Gathering Storm

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If I was drinking whiskey for breakfast I'd probably need to take a nap in the afternoon as well.

If you were not drinking coffee, perhaps you might as well. I wonder if our cultural addiction with caffeine, an effective sleep inhibitor, is the reason why napping and siestas feels so weird and exotic to our modern minds. "Oh you're from Italy? I heard they take lunchtime naps over there." Sadly only my grandma had such a luxury.

Everybody else chugs coffee and is expected to work 9-18 without pause, like the rest of the Western world.

Aren't the Italians known for their coffee?

From what I've seen, Italian coffee consumption is nothing like American coffee consumption. They don't sip at enormous cups of drip coffee while working, but instead quickly drink small amounts of espresso as a break. It seems to me that leads both to less caffeine consumption and more actual enjoyment of the beverage.

Italians drink small cups of espresso or moka (if homemade), and maybe a cappuccino at breakfast. The morning and lunch time ones are mandatory, then maybe one mid afternoon or in the evening.

If you happen to see someone having a cappuccino at lunch, or, yikes! with their dinner, they're probably a tourist.

When I last lived there, Starbucks and the lattes and pumpkin spice big mugs were a "weird American novelty" for teens in major city centres.

Certainly not conclusive at all, but... Top results from a Google search:

> Individually, an American coffee drinker consumes about three cups of coffee per day.

> Italians drink an average of 3 coffees a day

It seems that the averages are roughly equal. Of course there are outliers everywhere.

Presumably the American is having a cup of drip coffee (100mg caffeine) whereas the Italian is having a shot of espresso (60mg).

More likely these days, the American is having some kind of warm, sweet milkshake with a couple of shots of espresso in it.

I drink plenty of coffee and still take naps. Its hard for people to remember these days but the "lazy nappers" meme started during the industrial revolution. We've only had a 40 hour week, for example, for a (relatively) small amount of time here in America.

Do the majority of American workers even cap at 40?

At one job? It’s possible and doable.

A lot of people who are working in precarious situations actually work two or more jobs at less than 30 hours each, because 30 is when you qualify for employer provided health insurance.

non-coffee drinker here, never been able to nap during the daytime. I reckon it's mostly just differences between people.

>>“Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea."

Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.”

More to the point, there is evidence that a 10-20 minute nap at the middle of the day, such that you don't go into deep sleep, improves cognitive function and subjective alertness.

> from eight in the morning until midnight

Somehow that doesn't make me feel much better

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