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INTERVIEW – The nap is one of the little pleasures of the long holidays. But why do you feel guilty of succumbing to it? Response from the writer and journalist Sébastien Spitzer.
It is a simple pleasure and a priori accessible to all, which requires neither money nor sophisticated accessories. However, it is considered a luxury: difficult today, not to abandon itself to the nap without feeling a strange guilt. However, it meets a physiological need, and has undeniable health benefits. It is also practiced by most mammals, cats (world champions of exercise, at the rate of twelve to sixteen hours a day) to elephants, passing by horses. In some countries, notably Mediterranean, the nap is part of an ancestral culture, designed to relieve the body at the hottest moments of the day. In China, it is even compulsory: article 43 of the Constitution stipulates that “workers […] are entitled to rest ”after the midday meal (failing other freedoms). And many are the thinkers, geniuses and other great men, from Isaac Newton to Leonardo da Vinci, passing …
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