I am a habitual nap-taker. I take one almost every day and have for years. I used to feel a little guilty about it—like I was slacking off or something. Then Sam Moore, my predecessor at Thomas Nelson, admitted to me he too was a napper.
我有午休的习惯，每天中午休息会的习惯已经坚持了多年。曾经，我对此感到惭愧——似乎我是因此在躲避或者逃避什么似的。然而，我在托马斯·尼尔森的前辈山姆摩尔同意我午休，因为他也是个喜欢午休的人。
“Every day after lunch, I lie down on the sofa in my office,” he recounted. “I hold my car keys in my right hand and let my hand hang toward the floor. When the car keys fall out of my hand, I know I’m done.” (Evidently, the famous artist Salvador Dali had a similar practice. He called it “slumber with a key.”)
“每天午饭后，我躺在自己办公室的沙发上。”他说：“我左手拿着车钥匙，把手悬在地上，当车钥匙从我手里掉下去的时候，这就意味着我的午休结束了。”（无独有偶，注明画家萨尔瓦多·达利也有此癖好。他称之为：“与钥匙共眠”。）
I suggest you seriously consider taking a daily nap for the following five reasons:基于以下5个原因，我非常认真地建议你考虑下每天中午午休一会：
A nap restores alertness.
恢复你的警觉性
You know how your energy dips in the early afternoon? You start feeling a little sleepy and lose focus. It happens to most of us. A quick nap can bring us back up to speed.
你知道每天下午是如何消耗你的能量的吗？当你感觉到犯困或者丧失注意力的时候。这在我们大多数人之间司空见惯。一个午休可以让我们恢复元气。
The National Sleep Foundation recommends a short nap of twenty to thirty minutes “for improved alertness and performance without leaving you feeling groggy or interfering with nighttime sleep.”
国家睡眠基金会也建议我们午休20-30分钟来提高我们的警觉性，从而降低你对于身体麻醉感的感受，或者被晚间睡眠所影响。
A nap prevents burnout.
让你远离过劳
In our always-on culture, we go, go, go. However, we were not meant to race without rest. Doing so leads to stress, frustration, and burnout.
在我们的的文化里，经常是“小步快跑（因为生活节奏的的问题，大家似乎都很着急。译注）”然而，我们并不是好不休息地去参加比赛。如此，我们会感觉亚历山大，困惑不看，甚至过劳。
Taking a nap is like a system reboot. It relieves stress and gives you a fresh start.
午休诸如系统重启一样，让你释放压力，焕然一新。
Research subjects who nap show greater emotional resilience, improved cognitive function, and more. Just thirty minutes can prevent the day’s wear and tear from frying your circuits.
研究表明，小憩也可以让你有更大的情绪释放，提高你的认知能力甚至更多。仅仅三十分钟就医让你远离“电路损毁”。
A nap heightens sensory perception.
午休增强知觉系统
According to Dr. Sara C. Mednick, author of Take a Nap, Change Your Life, napping can restore the sensitivity of sight, hearing, and taste.
根据《来个午休，改变生活》的作者萨拉·C·梅德尼克博士所说，午休可以恢复你的视觉、听觉和味觉的敏感性。
Napping also improves your creativity by relaxing your mind and allowing new associations to form in it. When it came to making new connections, nappers had the edge in research done by the City University of New York.
同时，午休可以通过放松你的大脑来提高你的创造力以及这方面相互联系的能力。纽约城市大学的研究表明，有午休的习惯的人在这些方面的饿表现能力更强。
A nap reduces the risk of heart disease.
降低心脏疾病风险
Did you know those who take a midday siesta at least three times a week are 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease? Working men are 64 percent less likely! It’s true, according to a 2007 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
你知道每周午休三次习惯的人比那些没有的人在心脏疾病方面的比例下降约37%吗？是真的，2007年《内科医学档案》发布的研究数据表明，职场人约64%的人没有午休的习惯。
“Taking a nap could turn out to be an important weapon in the fight against coronary mortality,” said Dimitrios Trichopoulos of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, who led the study.
负责这一研究的哈佛大学公共健康波士顿分校的Dimitrios Trichopoulos说：“午休是一个有效地降低冠心病发病率的重要手段。”
A nap makes you more productive.
午休让你更具创造性
The secret to becoming more productive is not managing your time; it’s managing your energy.
让你更具创造性的秘诀并非时间管理，而是管理你的精力。
Numerous studies have shown workers becoming increasingly unproductive as the day wears on. Just think of your own experience. But a 2002 Harvard University study demonstrated a thirty-minute nap boosted the performance of workers, returning their productivity to beginning-of-the-day levels.
无数研究表明职场人士丧失创造力的原因是因为过于劳累，你可以想想你过往的经历是不是这样。2002年哈佛的研究表明30分钟的休息，可以让职场人的工作效率回到早上的水平。
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