I was never one for napping. To me, sleep was something you partook of while lying in bed - not a state that I ever experienced while sitting in an armchair
In my old family home, after we had consumed our evening meal which is simply known as "tea" in Yorkshire, I often noticed both my parents napping. Comfortable in front of the fire and the television set, they would slip away from consciousness over the border into the land of dreams. One or both of them would start to snore - ever so gently but loud enough to distract me from the evening's local news on "Look North". They would normally sleep for ten or twenty minutes.
One of the things that bothered me about napping was its propensity for hindering proper sleep when tucked up in bed. Napping can refresh us too much and if it goes on too long one might suffer from related bouts of insomnolence - perhaps entering a vicious cycle of sleep-related difficulties.
But now, as I reach the very end of my sixties, I have started to nap quite regularly in the early evening - just like my parents. If the room lights are low and my belly is full and I am warm and comfortable, quite often my eyelids will close as if pulled down by invisible lead weights. I might fight it for a while but the urge to nap tends to win out. Fortunately, it is normally only for ten or twenty minutes.
We never quite remember the moment when we drift off do we?
Shirley and I have been looking after Phoebe this weekend. She was awake just after 5.30 am this morning, calling out "Grandma!" before the sun had even risen to start a new day. She had breakfast, watched several episodes of "Hey Duggee", played in the garden, went swmming, ate lunch, read books and still wouldn't take a nap. She was still on full charge after I returned from visiting my old pal Bert in the middle of the afternoon.
We put her in Shirley's car and drove out into the nearby countryside beyond Ringinglow and as we travelled along Phoebe's eyes began to close. This being the hottest day of the year, we parked in the shade of trees at "The Alpaca Arms" with the door open and she was still napping when we got home. I guess she had had about forty minutes - just enough to avoid fractiousness before bedtime.
Now please excuse me as I need to go and take another nap.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/X6xYN5b