Community snooze fest helps some drift away quietly into new decade
A handful of drowsy dreamers set out to conquer the new decade Sunday with their eyes shut.
Snoozing expert Emily Sloan led the unique communal napping event at Mystic Lyon studio in the Fifth Ward, where she touted the benefits of catching a few extra Zs. The 2 p.m. doze was billed as BYOP — bring your own pillow — but Sloan supplied backups, as well as earplugs and padded eye covers.
Over whooshing street traffic, bantering pedestrians and the blare of a car horn, two attendees drifted off on their backs with fingers interlocked on their bellies. Two lay face down and one curled on her side in a blanket. A ceiling fan whirled noiselessly above the rug-strewn floor.
“Y’all look like you’re pretty
relaxed already,” said Sloan, a night owl and lifelong napper. “Feel your body connecting to the earth, growing roots… you’re safe and lifting.”
“Lift off judgments,” she said, explaining the exercise was inspired by Salvador Dali, also an avid napper, who advocated gripping a spoon or key during a nap and awakening when it clatters to the floor. Experts laud the benefits of
naps to be as countless as nighttime sheep.
Sloan has hosted prior events with Napping Affects Performance (NAP), including a co-production with a professional whistler who delivered lullabies, a jesting protest of a zombie march with her Southern Naptist Convention and a church event called The Napture, which confused one participant who’d come expecting a sermon on the end of days.
Time slipped by. A napper shifted. A supplicant released a hefty sigh. A
snore drifted up from a corner.
After 40 minutes, Sloan struck a gong. A napper pressed his fingers to his eyes. Some scribbled dream notes on index cards. Sloan asked for insights, and the nappers recalled vague snippets of their dreams.
The outing took 21-yearold Anastasia Vayner back to New York City, where she frequented a dream room with a neon light.
“It’s very intentional, creating a space for people to go to, to slow down. It’s like gentle hour,” she said.
Hank Bond, 20, who attended with Vayner, said “It felt right … but I don’t know if there is a point. I feel a little bit more grounded than I did walking in here. I feel like I have a little bit more space to process.”
As she packed to leave, Kirste Reimers shared an awakening that drew chuckles: “You can never nap too much.”