October 22, 2022

Cat-napping — taking advantage of the little spaces — is a super-power, not a weakness.

Here's a 2021 column in The Guardian: "From Aristotle to Einstein: a brief history of power nappers/Churchill took naps for at least an hour, Da Vinci for 20 minutes and Dalí for just a second" by Caroline Davies."
Salvador Dalí, in his 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship for aspiring painters, outlined tips for the one-second micro-nap, including sitting upright, key in hand and upturned plate beneath. Once asleep, the key will drop and the ensuing clang ensures instant revival. Albert Einstein deployed a similar technique, using a spoon or pencil instead of a key.
Aristotle also extolled the virtues of this hypnagogic napping – the semi-lucid state between sleep and wake – for inspiration, declaring: “For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.”...
Ronald Reagan, however, seemed ashamed of his habit, with his wife, Nancy, denying rumours of his daily naps, afraid he would be branded lazy.
Margaret Thatcher, who got by on four hours’ sleep a night, was not immune to the lure of the catnap.... Officials were so concerned she could suffer an injury if her Daimler was forced to brake while she nodded off that they arranged for a custom-built headrest to be fitted.

Some of the greatest people sleep unconventionally. There are so many ways to sleep badly, and some ways that look bad may be deviously clever approaches to living this crazy life, where even the most brilliant must sleep. Indeed: 

Einstein claimed that he needed 10 hours of sleep at night as well as his daytime naps to fuel that amazing brain of his. Just like Dali, he practiced micro-napping, which meant that he never allowed himself to drift into stage two of sleep. To ensure this he would sit in his favourite armchair holding a pencil or spoon and begin to doze off. If the object dropped, it would make a loud clang, which would wake him up. Many great thinkers have practiced this hypnagogic nap. Waking up during the first stage of sleep taps into the part of the brain that creates vivid imagery and sensation.

Einstein held a pencil or spoon and Dalí held a key. Trump and Biden just use a reporter to wake them up before they fall into that unwanted "second stage." They awake — from Stage 1 — popping with vivid imagery and sensation. Admire them. Don't give into Reaganesque shame!

37 comments:

Dave Begley said...

Pence’s voice could put anyone asllep.

mikee said...

I try not to nap while driving on the highway. Emphasis on try.

Aggie said...

Giving Joe credit for Super Powers has the same ring as Dr. Jill Biden telling us that Hunter is 'innocent'. Of all the words in the dictionary that don't apply to Hunter Biden, there is one at the top of that list, in a class of its own.

Michael said...

Trump napped because he was, is, a four hour a night guy. Biden likely racks for nine.

Earnest Prole said...

I think we can all agree it’s a power move when our guy catnaps and a sign of incredible weakness when their guy does it.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

I’m not convinced Joe Biden dozed off. The question was whether he would run again. It could be that Joe is pretty sure he is not going to run again, if someone better to take on Trump is available, and needed a moment to come up an with answer that didn’t divulge that but wasn’t a lie. It was a pretty good nonanswer.

madAsHell said...

Power naps are really a manifestation of dementia!

Sydney said...

Seems like a huge difference between nodding off while listening to someone else talk to a group and nodding off while engaging in a conversation. YUGE difference.

Bob Boyd said...

Biden was overdue for his dose of Ukrainian orphan blood.

Levi Starks said...

Clearly Biden was daydreaming about the next ice cream cone he had been promised.
However after that performance he may have been sent to bed hungry.

Achilles said...

Neither of them fell asleep.

Journalists are stupid people.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Trump could be praying or just shutting his eyes.
There's no proof he's sleeping. But the corrupt left do not need proof- do they? Only lie,
all lies - all the time.

The Biden interview is right there - no denying his strained mental capacity. Good puppet!

Lurker21 said...

Trump was drowsy. I suppose that happens a lot with a lot of people when they are at boring meetings and the speaker has an extremely boring, unmodulated voice. The cameras aren't on them all the time, so nobody notices or cares.

Biden was trying to think of an answer. He couldn't find it, so he spaced out. That's not the same as falling asleep, and not better either.

Drago said...

Earnest Prole rides in on his "all sides are the same though I have risen above such tawdry partisanship" stallion to white knight for Joe Biden by proclaiming falling asleep while speaking directly to someone is precisely the same as dozing while sitting quietly as others drone on.

n.n said...

Seems like a huge difference between nodding off while listening to someone else talk to a group and nodding off while engaging in a conversation.

Daniels subscribes to the principle of political congruence ("=").

Joe Smith said...

If you watch the video (especially on a large screen) it's not so much the nodding off as it is his black, dead eyes.

He has got to be on some medication that dilates his pupils.

I couldn't tell you if his eyes are blue or brown.

"A doll's eyes..."

Readering said...

Churchill drank at lunch so not surprised he napped.

JAORE said...

Watch his eyes closely.... he was outta there....

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Crook Biden is in bed with oppressive totalitarian crook Chi Coms.

But hey everyone - lets focus on Trump!

Putin goes to war on Biden's watch.

But hey everyone - less obsess over Trump!
... The Cheney's are begging you.

Michael K said...

What do you think Biden does during all those weekends and vacations in Delaware?

Sleeps and eats ice cream.

rcocean said...

Churchill stayed up late, and like Hiter and Stalin, would wear out his aides and Generals with long late night conferences. His "cat naps" were probably to make up for any sleep he didn't get.

Had an Uncle who was in Navy, and he got used to sleeping at odd times for relatively short periods. He could work for 12 hours on a project, take a four hour nap, then work another 12 hours.

SteveWe said...

It's really all about the condition of their minds before and after the "nap".

Yancey Ward said...

The hand up Biden's ass was needed for scratching something I am guessing.

Rabel said...

They switched to a second camera view camera at the exact moment he "fell asleep" and the interviewer reacted. I suspect it was worse than what we are being allowed to see. If not, the interviewers reaction doesn't match the slight closing of one eye and the pause.

They're lying again.

Leland said...

I don't know if Biden fell asleep at all. But hey, look! Trump is taking a nap during a press conference, say something!!! Ok. He's standing up and listening to someone else drone on. If Trump can take a power nap on his feet, then good on him.

James K said...

Trump was standing up in that video. I'm not sure it's possible to actually doze off standing up, but in any case he was just listening to someone drone on, not having a one-on-one conversation. It looks like he was just resting his eyes but still awake.

MadTownGuy said...

Thomas Edison's nap trick

Doug said...

Did the'journalist' really asl about 'Dr. Biden'? Why didn't he just drop his drawers and invite the old creep to bugger him?

Tofu King said...

They are both too old to be president. I would put the bar at 60 when elected.

Drago said...

rcocean: "Churchill stayed up late, and like Hiter and Stalin, would wear out his aides and Generals with long late night conferences. His "cat naps" were probably to make up for any sleep he didn't get."

Sleeping for several hours, up to 3, in the afternoon were not exactly "cat naps". But considering the total work hours, multiplied by the intensity and productivity of those work hours, is what enabled Churchill to claim that he actually worked 1.5 days each 24 hour period.

I hope my use of a decimal was not white supremacist of me.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Reminds me of a Reno 911 skit, where the cop on the left side of the vehicle looks over to his partner on the right side and says "you know, I dozed off there for a couple minutes." His partner says "you know, you're driving the car"

David Duffy said...

Thank God Trump mentally checked out while listening to another COVID speech. Who doesn't?

Biden is asked a question, needs a quick power nap before he can answer. Yep, same thing.

Mr. President, are you going to seek a second term? "Hold on...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...that's an important question...zzzzzzzzzzzzz...Mrs Dr and Kamala...zzzzzzzzzz...thinks it's important for the American people...zzzzzzzzzz...around the kitchen table...zzzzzzzz...Trump-Purtin!!!"

walter said...

It ain't because basement Joementia's working that hard. He might have been dreaming of his next ice cream cone...or whether he should have sniffed that transitory subject he will be appearing with in tommorrow's pseudo news dump.

walter said...

It ain't because basement Joementia's working that hard. He might have been dreaming of his next ice cream cone...or whether he should have sniffed that transitory subject he will be appearing with in tommorrow's pseudo news dump.

tim maguire said...

President is an exhausting job and I'm not surprised they have trouble focusing sometimes--especially when doing something not very important, even if it is on camera, but there is a big difference between these two events. Biden nodded off in the middle of answering a question, Trump nodded off while someone else was speaking. The camera may have been on him, but he wasn't directly involved in what was going on.

We've all done what Trump did--fallen asleep while listening to a boring speech. I don't think many of us have fallen asleep while making a speech.

tim maguire said...

Earnest Prole said...I think we can all agree it’s a power move when our guy catnaps and a sign of incredible weakness when their guy does it.

I forget what I concluded about you last go-round. Are you one of the old time Althouse performance artists trying to make liberals look stupid, or are you an honest to goodness troll trying to derail conversations?

Robert Cook said...

I've always been a napper. I remember coming back to my dorm in college and taking a deep one hour nap every afternoon. I still love my afternoon naps today and rarely miss taking them!