The New Road

2PM doldrums

These 2PM doldrums I'm going through are getting really old. Every day are 2PM I get really tired and the world just kind of turns grey. My thoughts turn very blue and dreary. Then I get a coffee and about an hour or so later I'm back to my old self again. And nothing seems to help other than pre-loading myself with coffee around 1PM, but I usually forget to do that. It doesn't depend on my nights sleep, or my breakfast, or the size of my lunch, or whether I am hydrated, or if I'm in the city or in Fremont. Nothing seems to effect this at all. And Lori tells me she is suffering from the same thing. Is it just age? I can't imagine so since the onset has been pretty recent.

Man, I just need a siesta. Lori and I took one last Saturday about mid-day when Megan was down for a nap as well and wow, did that feel good. I woke up feeling refreshed. Really nice. Of course, we 'napped' for about two hours.

Ok, I just checked the Wikipedia and now I feel a little better:

In recent years, studies have suggested a biological need for afternoon naps. Researchers found that subjects of the studies felt that it was easiest to fall asleep at night and in the afternoon. Contrary to popular belief, eating lunch does not bring on drowsiness in the afternoon. There is simply a loss of alertness and a decrease in body temperature that occurs around midday, which brings on this drowsiness. These symptoms are similar to what happens at night during the first stage of sleep and are caused by Ultradian rhythms in the Circadian rhythm, also called the "internal body clock". The studies have shown that there is a strong biological tendency for humans to become tired and possibly fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon. A siesta, or a slightly longer nap, can often satisfy this desire for sleep and allow a person to wake up feeling refreshed and much more alert. Research shows that the drop in body temperature causing drowsiness around midday is considerably more pronounced in men than women.