Have you ever been nap-shamed? You’re feeling groggy and run down. You know that a nap will do you a world of good. However, when you share your plan to take a rest, your friend or spouse gives you some side-eye. One woman found herself in this situation, wondering why her desire to nap was such an insane concept for her friends to comprehend.

Susan Dabbar shared her experience on TikTok, wondering if others had been, what she calls, nap-shamed.

“Back in September, I took a trip to Italy with a group of women, and we got all settled into our hotel. And after lunch, we were told we had free time. So I stood up and I said, ‘I think I’m gonna go take a nap.’ Immediately after I said that two of the women swung their heads around at me and said, ‘You take naps?’ with kind of this disgusted tone,” she shared.

She wondered if they were judging her for taking a nap because their tone was one of confusion and disgust. She immediately went on the defense.

“So I stood there feeling like I had to defend myself. Since when did napping become a dirty little secret that I had to keep to myself?”

She firmly responded back to her friends, doubling down that, yeah, she takes naps, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, she might be a better person because she naps.

“When my body says I’m done, I go take a nap. The science shows that napping is really healthy. It can improve your cognitive ability. It reduces stress. It can even lower your blood pressure. So what’s with all the nap shaming? Are we supposed to just run around like the Energizer Bunny and never run out and never have to recharge? I say ‘no’ to that. So I wanna know. Are you a nap shamer?”

Susan is right! A 2016 study found that people who napped for 30 to 90 minutes had better word recall – which is a sign of good memory – than people who did not nap. People who napped for that golden 30 to 90 minutes were also better at figure drawing, another sign of good cognition.

One observational study found that napping one or two times a week was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attack, stroke, or heart disease.

So, what’s the deal with the shaming? Some might say it’s an American problem. It’s hustle culture. It’s that “work hard, play hard” mentality rearing its ugly head. And that may be so! Even as a mom, I do feel a twinge of guilt when I tell my husband I’m going to go lie down and close my eyes for 20 minutes. And that guilt doesn’t come from him or my kid or anything else but my own toxic, internalized thoughts that I should always be “doing” and working and being productive.

But as Susan would argue, naps are productive especially when you just got off a 12-hour flight to Italy!

Have you ever been nap-shamed? You’re feeling groggy and run down. You know that a nap will do you a world of good. However, when you share your plan to take a rest, your friend or spouse gives you some side-eye. One woman found herself in this situation, wondering why her desire to nap was such an insane concept for her friends to comprehend.

Susan Dabbar shared her experience on TikTok, wondering if others had been, what she calls, nap-shamed.

“Back in September, I took a trip to Italy with a group of women, and we got all settled into our hotel. And after lunch, we were told we had free time. So I stood up and I said, ‘I think I’m gonna go take a nap.’ Immediately after I said that two of the women swung their heads around at me and said, ‘You take naps?’ with kind of this disgusted tone,” she shared.

She wondered if they were judging her for taking a nap because their tone was one of confusion and disgust. She immediately went on the defense.

“So I stood there feeling like I had to defend myself. Since when did napping become a dirty little secret that I had to keep to myself?”

She firmly responded back to her friends, doubling down that, yeah, she takes naps, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, she might be a better person because she naps.

“When my body says I’m done, I go take a nap. The science shows that napping is really healthy. It can improve your cognitive ability. It reduces stress. It can even lower your blood pressure. So what’s with all the nap shaming? Are we supposed to just run around like the Energizer Bunny and never run out and never have to recharge? I say ‘no’ to that. So I wanna know. Are you a nap shamer?”

Susan is right! A 2016 study found that people who napped for 30 to 90 minutes had better word recall – which is a sign of good memory – than people who did not nap. People who napped for that golden 30 to 90 minutes were also better at figure drawing, another sign of good cognition.

One observational study found that napping one or two times a week was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attack, stroke, or heart disease.

So, what’s the deal with the shaming? Some might say it’s an American problem. It’s hustle culture. It’s that “work hard, play hard” mentality rearing its ugly head. And that may be so! Even as a mom, I do feel a twinge of guilt when I tell my husband I’m going to go lie down and close my eyes for 20 minutes. And that guilt doesn’t come from him or my kid or anything else but my own toxic, internalized thoughts that I should always be “doing” and working and being productive.

But as Susan would argue, naps are productive especially when you just got off a 12-hour flight to Italy!