As I nodded off in my comfortable recliner, my son said, “Mom, why don’t you go take a nap?” and so I did, trying not to feel guilty and put out of my mind all the things I should be doing. For an hour or so, I simply forgot about what needed to be done and gave in to Morpheus. (The original, not a movie or computer software.)

Taking a nap is one of those things many of us indulge in, but like so many of our daily routines, we don’t talk about it. Like the silvery strands of hair we see ever so fleetingly, naps mean – gasp! – we’re getting older. It’s no secret. When the phone rings in the afternoon, and if I do not answer with my phone voice, I’m sometimes asked if I just woke up. The yawn must give me away.

But naps aren’t the exclusive territory of older people. Those of us who are parents remember “putting the kids down” for a nap. We wished we could join them. And as long as there was just one child, sometimes we did. After that brief period of childhood, though, naps were considered “for babies” and we skittered through decades without naps.

Then come the golden years of retirement. Notice that the word “retire” has a close relationship to “nap.”

I’ve been fretting about this increased need for naps for some time now, and have been known to interject, “Do you take naps?” into casual conversations with friends. They haven’t caught on that I’m doing an informal poll. Some of them own up to it and admit they shut the phone off and lie down – sometimes.

The Internet has become one of my research tools, so I decided to find out just what the skinny was on naps and older people. Talk about technical language! It appears that there are many experts who have studied this issue and there are over a million “hits” for naps and the elderly. Now, I’m really bogged down. How to sort out the tech talk (circasemidian rhythm, for example)?

A few of the experts’ findings are obvious: Sleepiness in the afternoon causes poor alertness and a solution might be to take a nap. Naps are caused by not getting enough sleep at night. It’s been said that the older you get the less sleep you need. Does that mean if I live to be 95 I’ll only sleep three hours? I’d bet the naps would get a lot longer.

But, wait. One of the sources I read on the Internet talks about napping as a good thing. It even has tips for good napping, with advice about length of naps (at least 20-30 minutes), the environment (restful and quiet), timing (after lunch, every day) and best of all, the benefits, which include restored alertness, enhanced performance and reduction of accidents.

I skipped right over the part about the negative effects and the list of stigmas attached to napping. I’m not a child and I’m not lazy, so I don’t need to worry about a stigma.

Napping is part of many cultures around the world. Here in America, where we’ve borrowed from nearly every other culture, we haven’t caught on to napping yet. We love tacos, but what about siestas?

We’re always hearing the results of the latest studies, something reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association and one of these busy research places has determined that Americans are becoming more and more sleep deprived. This isn’t a healthy thing to have happen. We need, more than ever, to be as alert as we can.

I, for one, am going to do the right thing. I already watch what I eat (even the chocolate cream pie) and from now on, the moment my eyelids feel heavy, I’ll shut off the phone and retire for a little snooze – just to stay on my toes and to give me enough energy to watch the late news. Funny, but having a nap never interferes with my good night’s sleep.

And if you wonder if naps are the domain of the ordinary among us, we nappers are in good company. Ronald Reagan, Einstein, Thomas Edison – even George W. Bush – nappers one and all.