午睡文化Napping

陸地/文　任東升　焦琳/譯注

中午不睡，下午崩潰。即便到了冬天，我也需要小瞇一會，多年來一直如此。看看周圍的朋友同事，有如此頑強2午休習慣的占比很大。

A nap at midday keeps afternoon drowsiness away. I have always been a napper， even on winter days， for many years. In fact， Ive noticed that my friends and colleagues who stick to such a daily routine are the majority.

如在夏天，午睡文化的力量簡直神奇3，大家吃罷午飯，整個大樓內一片寂靜，工作停轉，大家約定俗成，各不打擾。離家近的，回家午睡去了；離家遠的，搬張椅子，套上護脖在辦公室將就一下。

Napping casts its spell on summer days particularly. Shortly after lunch， silence fills the whole office building， for the employees are now taking a nap break， and an unspoken agreement is shared by all that each deserves a personal napping space without interference. Those living nearby go home for a nap， while others make do with a chair and a neck pillow in the office.

午休對身體益處多多，在文化上也源遠流長。4“南州溽暑醉如酒，隱幾熟眠開北牖。日午獨覺無余聲，山童隔竹敲茶臼。”唐代的柳宗元5描繪了一幅恬然自樂、風輕云淡的午睡好時光。而南宋楊萬里對午睡的描述，也非常溫情和愜意：“梅子留酸軟齒牙，芭蕉分綠與窗紗。日長睡起無情思，閑看兒童捉柳花。”啊呀，這是多么好的午睡時光，多么好的生活情趣！

A daily practice good for health， napping is also a seasoned cultural behaviour with a long history. Liu Zongyuan （A.D. 773–819， a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty） impressed us by a picturesque description of a joyful and leisurely nap time：

Drowned in sultry and sweltering summer， I was drowsy like a tipsy toper.

The north window opens wide， leaning on the desk， I fell fast asleep at noontide.

In the stillness of midday hushed were the worldly sounds.

Through the bamboo woods far away， came the ringing of tea mortar by a boys pounds.

Another depiction of napping is from Yang Wanli （A.D. 1127–1206）， a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty， showing the leisure and comfort of napping：

Between my teeth the sourness of plums remains，

Upon the window screen lies the green shade of? plantains.

From a nap I awake in a lengthy day with an empty mind，

Idly watching catkins floating with children running behind.

What a delightful napping time and what a spice of life！

如果時間再往前些，在東漢末年，午睡似乎也流行了。在三顧茅廬6中，劉備第三次到達孔明的茅廬，孔明正在午睡，他“拱立階下”半晌，而后又“立了一個時辰”，這孔明的午睡時間也真夠長的。

Napping at noon as a popular daily practice might date back to the late Eastern Han Dynasty （A.D. 25–220）. According to the story “San Gu Mao Lu” （Liu Bei paid three visits to Zhuge Kongmings thatched cottage）， Zhuge Kongming was in a sound nap when Liu Bei came visiting him for the third time， and Liu stood respectfully on the doorstep waiting for his waking， and that took hours. What a napper Zhuge was！

最近看了一文，說中國人與歐美國家相比，是特別喜歡午睡的一個族群。在國外公司，午睡文化不像國內濃厚，國外公司中午不會給職員很多的午睡時間。但有人不認同，他們認為這與工作時間相關，西方公司上班時間較遲，有的到11點才上班，他們可以睡到自然醒，當然不需要午睡了。

I came across an essay recently stating that compared with Europeans and North Americans， Chinese people take much more delight in napping. In companies abroad， where the employees are not granted much napping time， napping is not yet popular enough to be called a culture phenomenon. Some people do not go with such a remark， holding that it has something to do with the start of office work. They take it that Western companies start work later， sometimes at 11 oclock， so they are able to wake up naturally in the morning. In such a case， a noon nap is certainly not necessary.

還有專家從飲食習慣分析了中國人喜歡午睡的原因，歐美國家食物結構肉蛋類偏多，蔬菜類較少；而中國食物主要來自種植業，北方以面食為主，南方以米飯為主。如果學過生物，那我們就明白一個科學道理，面食和米飯含較高的葡萄糖，一般中午我們會吃得較飽，這就會導致血糖升高，人就會產生嗜睡感。

Some researchers interpret the Chinese indulgence in napping in the light of eating habits. Food in European countries and America is mostly composed more meat and eggs than vegetables， while Chinese food comes mainly from farming， with people in the north eating wheaten food primarily and those in the south relying on rice. Biology tells us that wheaten food and rice contain a lot of glucose. Normally we Chinese get on a full stomach after lunch， so the glucose-rich Chinese diet raises the level of blood glucose， leading to drowsiness.

這些說法非常有趣，但對于我來說，即便幾天不食用面食、米飯，按照西方的飲食習慣來，一到中午用餐之后，整個人仍然無精打采，仍要找個安靜的地方小睡一會兒了。 除非讓我睡到日上三竿，才有可能在午間活蹦亂跳。

These speculations are seemingly reasonable. They， however， do not work on me. Even days of conversion to Western diet， instead of wheaten food or rice， cannot ease my post-lunch listlessness， hence a nap at a quiet place is desperate. Otherwise， only a lie-in in the morning could help me accumulate enough energy for the whole afternoon.

美國的一位睡眠研究專家說，午休是人類自我保護的方式，它類似于運動過程中的緩沖，它有利于下午保持充沛精力。看來，美國人也并非不需要午睡，只要是生命肌體，睡眠從來都是一種對健康非常友好的行為。

According to an American sleep researcher， noon-time napping is a kind of self-protection similar to buffering in sports， helping to keep people energetic in the afternoon. That is to say， Americans need to take a noon nap， too. For each living organism， taking a nap is always a healthy habit.

經常在網絡和報刊上曝光在宜家商場的沙發、席夢思上小睡的顧客，還有在公園長椅、草坪上小睡的游客，我對這些午睡者表示同情，睡意來襲，排山倒海，真的無法阻擋啊！大概人與人之間的區別在于隨意和不隨意，你隨意睡可能有礙觀瞻，觸及了文明底線；如果你是一個不隨意的人，午睡必須到一個相對私密的空間，那么就是文明之睡了。

Noon nap occurs everywhere： candid shots of IKEA customers napping on a sofa or Simmons， park-goers on a bench or on the lawn， are frequently noticed on newspapers and the Internet. I fully understand them， since drowsiness is so overwhelming that nobody can resist it. Be that as it may， your napping places make a difference. Those who nap in public places embarrass passers-by， which is not socially tolerable. On the contrary， a self-disciplined person preferring to nap in private space is regarded as a napper with decency.