If this item makes you sleepy, go ahead -- take a nap

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If you find yourself fighting the urge to catch 40 winks in the middle of the day, maybe it’s time to start snoozing and stop worrying about what your boss will think. You might be surprised by how many of your co-workers will join you.

Thirty-four percent of Americans take a nap on a typical day, according to the latest Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey. For men over age 50, the prevalence of napping rises to 41%. The most enthusiastic nappers are African Americans – half of them acknowledged taking a nap in the last 24 hours.

Napping for as little as 20 or 30 minutes can “improve mood, alertness and performance,” according to the National Sleep Foundation. And today’s nappers are in good company — their habit was shared by Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, the foundation says.

Napping is widespread among people in all regions of the country, according to the survey. The pastime is shared by city dwellers, suburbanites and folks in rural areas. Single people are just as likely to nap as married people; so are parents, childless adults and empty-nesters.

Not surprisingly, people who reported trouble sleeping the previous night were more likely to take a nap (41%) compared with those who slept well (32%). Exercise also seems to make people sleepy – 37% of people who recently engaged in a vigorous workout said they napped, compared with 30% of loafers.

Napping occurs at all income levels, but is most popular among people earning less than $30,000 a year – 42% of them said they’d napped in the past day. People earning between $75,000 and $99,000 apparently were too busy to nap – only 21% of them did so – but once income rose past $100,000, napping became an affordable luxury, indulged by 33% of those surveyed.

People with jobs are slightly more likely to nap on the weekends, while people who are unemployed or retired show a preference for weekday naps.

Personally, I’d be happy to take a nap any day I had the chance. But the survey found that only 18% of respondents who described themselves as “very happy” had napped in the previous day, compared with 24% of folks who said they were “pretty happy” and 46% of those who said they were “not too happy.” Maybe that’s partly because people who reported distress about their financial situation (regardless of actual income) were twice as likely to have trouble sleeping at night.

-- Karen Kaplan