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Spice of Life | Catching forty winks under the open sky
These countries not only celebrate sleeping and napping but also understand their importance, and such initiatives promote awareness about sleep’s vital role in overall health, productivity, and well-being.
While surfing the internet the other day, I came across an interesting nugget about the shortest month of the year. It turns out that many countries, including the US, dedicate the last day of February to the fine art of napping in public. I could hardly believe that dozing off on a park bench would be officially recognised. Yes, National Public Sleeping Day is a real thing in these countries, and it comes with a history and directives on how to celebrate it.
In such countries, the day is a public holiday, and people are encouraged to take a blanket to any public place — the beach, the park, movie theatres, on a bus or subway, at their desk in the office, or any other favourite public place of their choice. They are supposed to take a mid-day nap and relax. Realising the impact of social media, the government directs people to share a picture of them enjoying their mid-day siesta and upload it on social media, or they can also share some interesting anecdote or story about their public sleeping.
After further research, I found that the World Sleep Society has declared March 15 World Sleep Day, and many countries celebrate the second Sunday of March as National Napping Day. These countries not only celebrate sleeping and napping but also understand their importance, and such initiatives promote awareness about sleep’s vital role in overall health, productivity, and well-being.
Just as I began to appreciate initiatives like World Sleep Day and National Napping Day, I glanced around me. On the footpaths, every afternoon, I see men and women sprawled like lifeless forms, wrapped in tattered blankets that may one day serve as their shrouds. At railway stations, homeless beggars and urchins vie for cramped corners to rest their weary limbs. Before you can look twice, they drift into another world — perhaps one where they don’t have to fight for a square meal a day or a roof over their heads.
For these men, women, and children, days like World Sleep Day or National Napping Day hold no significance. Sleep never eludes them — not because they are at peace, but because exhaustion takes over, leaving no room for insomnia or indulgence. They don’t post selfies flaunting a perfect nap, for their sleep isn’t a luxury to showcase but a desperate need born out of survival. Their siesta is not under soft quilts but under the open sky, on cold pavements or crowded station corners. For them, sleep is not restorative but a brief escape from their harsh reality, a fragile solace amid unrelenting hardship.
The other day, while speaking with a friend serving in the Indian Army, he shared his experiences of field duty. He described how his men and he often slept in tents or under the open sky. His words instantly reminded me of my husband’s job with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). During his posting at Bombay High, he frequently visited unmanned platforms. If nightfall caught him there, he had no choice but to sleep in the open, with the vast starlit sky above and the dark, foreboding sea stretching endlessly around him.
Whether it’s soldiers on the field, oil workers on remote platforms, or countless others in demanding roles, sleep is secondary to responsibility, regardless of whether it’s a designated sleeping day or not. sonrok15@gmail.com
The writer is an associate professor of English at SD College, Ambala Cantt
