Someone Needs a Nap

I think and talk a lot about compassion fatigue...the burnout that helpers experience when they are overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems they are helping people overcome. Therefore, I also think a lot about self care and all of the fancy/ new age/ psychologically sound ways we can heal ourselves before we completely burn out. I believe in these methods of mindfulness and talk therapy. I should, I spent four years and a lot of money learning them.

Perhaps one of the better methods of self care I learned was not from grad school, but from being a mother...or, come to think of it, from being a daughter. "Someone needs a nap"; if you've not said these words as a parent yourself, then you've heard them during your own childhood. Scenario: Child X has had a full day of preschool, followed by errand running with Mom without so much as a Teddy Graham in three hours. Now, said Child, is laying in the floor of the frozen foods aisle screaming about his lack of Push-up Pops while rivers of snot and tears are making the floor a major hazard. Then, Mother X says to Child X (say it with me): "Someone needs a nap." If this child is lucky, he will be swiftly picked up, taken home and marched up to bed. After this mandatory nap, the child that had been a demon hours earlier, miraculously emerges as the sweet-faced two year old he really, truly is.

We psychotherapists and psychologist pathologize "the bed" too often. Uh-oh...feel like staying in bed all day?! Must be depressed! Someone write a prescription for Zoloft and get that person upright--STAT! Obviously, I'm making light of what can be very serious. It's never good if, on average, someone is in bed more than they are out. I say, however, that pulling the covers over your head for a while is not only "ok"...it's healthy! It allows us the opportunity to reboot our minds and our bodies. Rest is not a luxury...it's a requirement!

Some sleep studies have shown that as much as 40% of Americans are moderately to severly sleep deprived and 43% of Americans say that daytime sleepiness affected their ability to work. Even without a stressful job and family responsibilities, no one can function their best when body and mind are not rested. So, draw the shades, stay in your jammies, pull the covers over your head and hide from the world for a spell. Clearly, someone needs a nap!

And for more stories on sleeplessness, check out this week's This American Life podcast, "Middle of the Night"