Sectors of Spain’s working class said “adios” to the traditional siesta between 2 and 5 in the afternoon in 2005, according to the Associated Press.
Spaniards have the choice of taking a long lunch with the possibility of a midday nap or a shorter break, as long as they meet their hourly work requirements for the week.
As college students, we tend to take an extra long Saturday siesta after Friday’s fiestas.
At the least, most have woken up at the crack of noon on a Saturday after a stressful week.
I’ve always felt I did my body a favor by catching up on missed sleep, like there is some invisible force balancing everything. Four hours on one night, twelve on the next: congratulations, I have a perfect eight for each night.
Alas, no such measuring system exists.
The sleep slate starts anew each day, no rollover or sharing hours. My occasional weekend sleep binge is like going over my daytime minutes when I could have just waited for the free ones at night.
Still, I try to find reasons to excuse myself from not waking up to one of the five blissful alarms I set on my cell phone.
My bedroom does not have a window so sleeping at three in the afternoon is the same as three in the morning. This setup might sound like a luxury, but it downright confuses my body and amuses the few who see me emerge from my room.
The common groggy state between waking up and joining society might be more serious for those who sleep more than 10 hours a night over a period of time.
Sleep drunkenness is a disorder of severe sleepiness.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, people with this disorder appear partially asleep, confused or drunk after waking up.
Daniel Kripke, co-director of Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, Calif., warns that, although oversleeping occasionally isn’t harmful, habitual excessive sleeping can actually make people feel worse.
There has not been much concrete evidence to explain the effects of oversleeping, but some studies show that depression, back pain, headaches, heart disease, obesity and diabetes are all medical problems linked with oversleeping.
“What the body really wants is regularity and anything that moves you away from that starts causing the body a problem,” said Neil Stanley of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre.
But what are people supposed to do if they can’t get in their eight hours?
James Maas, author of Power Sleep, recommends taking a 20-minute afternoon nap but no longer because more will interfere with sleeping cycles.
It seems smart, then, to follow the recent standard set by the Spanish government. It might be time to forego the tradition of weekend oversleeping for shorter, more productive sleep.
If you find yourself a little worse for the wear next week, take a siesta, but do your body a favor and keep it short.
Hayley is a public relations/sports PR major with a minor in English.
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