Sleep is a basic human need to maintain health as well as recharge your brain after a long day of school or work. The best form of sleep, however, is a nap.
The nap I want to discuss is my favorite one of the year, the post-Thanksgiving dinner nap. In an article written by Brittney Smith on Men’s Journal, there are a lot of reasons as to why a nap is effective and healthy. The most important reason for me, after Thanksgiving dinner, in the article is to improve self-control.
A majority of the time I am extremely full and do not need to go back and get more food directly after dinner is over. However, I always find myself trying to finish off my favorite dishes immediately after they enter the refrigerator.
After a large and rather long Thanksgiving dinner, all I want to do at the end of the meal is sit down on the couch, kick my feet up, throw some football on the T.V. and close my eyes. In my family, the post-Thanksgiving dinner nap is something that requires skill and precision to execute perfectly.
After dinner a group of people sit at the now clean kitchen table and go over all of the Black Friday ads, another group sits on the couch to watch the football game. The loudest and hardest group to navigate, the kids, run around the house playing with the plethora of toys that my mom always sets out for them.
Between the arguing about what to buy later that night, who is playing better than who on the T.V., balloons popping and matchbox cars falling down the stairs; the nap must be timed perfectly.
Personally, I enjoy finding the spot on the couch with a footrest to ensure maximum comfortability. After the spot is secured, I start to try and focus on the sounds of the football game on T.V. Finally, with a full stomach and the sounds of the Detroit Lions losing I drift off into a somewhat peaceful nap.
A majority of the time the nap is short-lived because people are starting to leave to get to their other dinners or get the kids in bed, but I always wake up refreshed and ready for some fresh-baked pumpkin pie.
