Hacker News Reader

Comment by zissou | Hacker News Reader

Like the wise scholar in England wrote, I'm most productive after a nap but before I go to bed.

Is taking a nap then "going to bed" later basically the same thing as a 2 sleep night?

I think naps are a good modern example of a 2 sleep night. I wonder when people began napping? The Google Ngram Viewer makes me think we've been napping for years [1], except perhaps right after WW2, but then 1970 happened and we started getting tired. :)

[1] http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nap&year_st...

View on HN

Churchill himself, during WWII, was insistent upon his midday nap:

"You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner, and no half-way measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always do. 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 imagination. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one-well, at least one and a half, I'm sure. When the war started, I had to sleep during the day because that was the only way I could cope with my responsibilities."

It's an interesting mindset, and I wonder if he'd ever given thought to letting the troops take afternoon naps. I can't imagine that they did, but wonder if it would have been beneficial or not.

Troops sleep whenever they can. Combat doesn't keep a schedule.

Understood, but one might say that to leadership - Churchill - the war isn't slowing down sir - taking a nap when people's lives are on the line probably didn't look all that hot to many people.

Interestingly the british english corpus has a fairly even reference to napping. Though there is a slight downward trend to the graph.

I have also included napping and siesta in the plot. These have a fairly constant use.

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nap%2Cnapping%2...

Many people are having a siesta in the afternoon, wich is basically the same as having a nap, isn't it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com