Best Medicine for a Summer Afternoon

It’s just what the doctor ordered

As I watched the dog chasing his tail, I thought, “Dogs are so easily amused.” en I realized I was watching the dog chase his tail.

We could learn a lot from watching our dogs, especially during the hot, humid “dog days” of summer, historically signaled by the brilliant dawn rising of Sirius, the largest star in the constellation the Romans called “Canis Major” (large dog), roughly July 3 through August 15. Back on the ground, every warm afternoon is marked somewhere by the peaceful settling of a dog’s body into slumber.

What’s the lesson for us? The two periods of the day when humans have the greatest tendency to fall asleep are between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. This timetable represents natural cycles in our biological clocks (or circadian rhythms), when the core body temperature drops along with a person’s eyelids. In the afternoon, all these physiological and mental processes begin to go into a dip, says Sara Mednick, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine, and author of the book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life.

In the Middle Ages people napped; but the advent of timepieces, light bulbs and factories made daytime snoozing inconvenient for all but the crankiest toddlers.

Mednick continues: We’re allowing society and pressures of the modern age to prescribe our sleep and thought schedules. No matter what time of the year, it has been shown that the mechanics of the human body and brain don’t mesh very well with a nine-to-five work day.

Most mammals are designed to stay awake if there’s rapidly changing emotional input. But like dogs, monkeys (our closest biological relative) don’t put their social needs ahead of their sleep needs. Robert Stickgold, professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, asserts: We are certainly the only known organism that sleepdeprives itself.

For our own health and wellness, what can we do?

For those who have jobs, we can consult the wisdom of companies who understand the value of wakefulness and the drawbacks of sleepiness. For decades the policy at the Menninger Clinic was that immediately following lunchtime, employees were required to take up to 45 minutes of “quiet time”—they didn’t have to nap, but communication or work tasks were not allowed. Many companies encourage such downtime breaks (as short as 20 minutes) to be a part of the lunch period if not the early afternoon.

For those not “gainfully employed,” we must become our own benevolent bosses and schedule time to rest, treating it as any other appointment. If there is still wisdom in the old prescription, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” there is even more healing to be had in the new quip: “A nap a day keeps the doctor at bay.”

Watch a good napper sleeping and you’ll quickly learn that it is the sign of a sound mind in a comfortable body.