Sleepy Time

I am very pro-napping and pro-sleeping although I don't get the chance to do either very often these days. When I lived in Moldova, it was an acceptable practice to nap or have a pui de somn (loosely translated as "baby chick of sleep.") In Moldova, you are expected to work hard (manual labor--in the fields, forest, gardens, vineyards, mills, etc) but there wasn't a stigma against napping like I feel there is in the US. Maybe it's just me, but sometimes I feel guilty for taking a nap--like I should be studying or doing something else productive. The problem is, and I think this is true for many Americans, is that we push and push until we eventually crash--and in the long run that decreases efficiency and effectiveness that we attempt to improve through being the Energizer bunny.
In Moldova, however, people aren't driven by the almighty clock. The sun rise, sunset, harvest times, religious holidays, seasons, weather, and sometimes power failures dictate when we worked and rested--not what time our watch said (not many of my fellow villagers had a watch anyway.) This drove me batty in the beginning, but I eventually came to love the slower pace and the inability to predict and control the events of the day--even though we were just as productive when it was all said and done. Go figure...
In a "less-developed" country, the body returns to a state of "normalcy"--at least in the sleep department. Street lights are nonexistent, TV rare, computers even more so--there is no 24-hour constant stimulation that exists in the US. In the summer, you woke up before the rooster crowed and began work outside until it was too hot--then it was time to eat and rest. In the late afternoon or evenings when it was cooler and energy restored, outside work could be continued and in the darkness could be heard sounds of neighbors conversing and children playing in the road. In the summer I would sleep 5-7 hours, rising early to get a run in before the sun came out and before the cows and sheep were led to their respective fields. Have you ever tried to run through 46 cows on a narrow dirt road? Fun stuff. Don't trip.
However in the winter, because of the early darkness (3 or 4 pm) and the lack of central heating, evenings would lend themselves to family time around the soba (wood-burning stove) or an evening of reading in the -20 degree rated sleeping bag with a head lamp. I regularly slept at least ten hours a night in the winter--that is what my body wanted and I did not feel lazy nor guilty.
Moldova is deemed a "second-world" country, however, in many health-related aspects, in an oxymoronic sort of way, I believe they are more advanced than the good ol' US of A.