Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.

~ Barbara Jordan

I used to frown upon naps.

My anti-napping sensibility, as I like to call it, started at an early age. My mom could take up half your day with tales of my crafty naptime crib escapes.

As I got older, mid-day shut-eye-shutdown seemed counterintuitive to my upbringing of gettin’ stuff done.

How can I possibly be a productive member of society if I’m stealing zzz’s?

I’d get annoyed at my husband whose middle name could be Power Napper—shouldn’t he be analyzing the water-wasting slow leak under the kitchen sink?!

I’d put aside judgment if, of course, I also needed a siesta due to a poor night’s sleep or some other “valid” reason I felt I had to concoct in order to slip into a guilt-free mid-afternoon intermission from wakefulness.

Napping = lazy.

Until I stumbled across this infographic that not only extols the virtues of napping (more than 11 of them), but defines the five different nap types. (Ironically, I fall into the Lazy Man nap category.)

According to the Churchill Centre and Museum, Winston Churchill once said:

You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner, and no half-way measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That’s what I always do. Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one—well, at least one and a half, I’m sure. When the war started, I had to sleep during the day because that was the only way I could cope with my responsibilities.

So go ahead. Take that nap.

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{infographic: via Pinterest}