“Slumber with a Key"
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more about napping.
Or, just take a nap now. Your choice.
What is a nap?
Historical Nappers
The Nap Council
Promoting the nap as the most natural, spiritual, non-invasive, preventative and holistic technique for complete mind/body wellness and alignment.
Biphasic Sleep
Nap Theory
The Benifits of Napping
A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken between the hours of 9am and 9pm as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours. A nap is a form of biphasic or polyphasic sleep, where the latter terms also include longer periods of sleep in addition to one single period. Cultural attitudes toward napping during the work day vary. In many Western cultures, children and the elderly are expected to nap during the day and are provided with designated periods and locations to do so. In these same cultures, most working adults are not expected to sleep during the day and napping on the job is widely considered unacceptable. Other cultures (especially those in hot climates) serve their largest meals at midday, with allowance for a nap period (siesta) afterwards before returning to work.
What are the benefits of napping?
Napping offers various benefits for healthy adults, including:
RelaxationReduced fatigueIncreased alertnessImproved moodImproved performance, including quicker reaction time and better memory
Read more at The Mayo Clinic.
Eccentric artist Salvador Dali believed that one of the secrets to becoming a great painter was what he called “slumber with a key.” “Slumber with a key” was an afternoon siesta designed to last less than a single second. To accomplish this micro nap, Dali would sit in a chair with his arms resting on the armrests and his wrists dangling over them. He held a heavy metal key between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, and placed an upside-down plate on the floor directly below the key. The instant Dali dozed off, the key would slip through his fingers, clang the plate, and awaken him from his nascent slumber. In that moment, Dali observed, one walked “in equilibrium on the taut and invisible wire that separates sleep from waking.” The artist recommended this practice to anyone who worked with their mind, believing that the tiny nap “revivified” one’s whole “physical and physic being” and left you invigorated and inspired for an afternoon of creative labor. Dali said that he had learned the “slumber with a key” trick from the Capuchin monks and that other artists he knew also used it. The secret Dali had discovered involves entering a state called hypnagogia. Today we’ll discover what’s behind it, as well as how you too can discover new dimensions and insights along the boundary between wakefulness and sleep.
Biphasic sleep (or bimodal or bifurcated sleep) is the practice of sleeping during two periods over 24 hours, while polyphasic sleep refers to sleeping multiple times - usually more than two. Each of these is in contrast to monophasic sleep which is one period of sleep over 24 hours. Segmented sleep and divided sleep may refer to polyphasic or biphasic sleep, but may also refer to interrupted sleep where the sleep has one or several shorter periods of wakefulness. A common form of biphasic or polyphasic sleep includes a nap, which is a short period of sleep, typically taken between the hours of 9am and 9pm as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period.
Ronald Reagan
Tricia Hersey (The Nap Minister)
Napoleon Bonaparte
John F. Kennedy
Nappers of Note
Salvador Dali
Thomas Edison
Winston Churchill
Stonewall Jackson
Lyndon B. Johnson
When I started this project I viewed napping as a wellness tool and something that we, as individuals, had at our disposal at all times... and required no money. Because of this I saw naps as a push back against marketing and corperate influence.
As I have sat with these ideas for several years, I've come to label this as a direct attack on capitalism and colonialism. Undermining Protestant work ethic and grind culture in general.
But the biggest breakthough I've had came from The Nap Ministry and the Nap Minister herself, Tricia Hersey. It is through her deep critique and reolutionary praxis that I have come to learn about so many aspects of this work. Please take a look at her work at The Nap Ministry:
https://www.instagram.com/thenapministry/