I knew it...

Do we sometimes feel the lids drooping after lunch? Do we feel like a little nana nap might refresh mind and matter? Well, you may be right to give into it. And you can now give it a name: post-prandial dip. So, a typical conversation might go like this, preceded by a yawn. "Hmm. I feel a tad post-prandial, dear. I might have to just lie down for a tick." (Followed by silence, and the sound of snoring of conversation partner, who has already tucked into a good afternoon nap).

From an article in Yes! "7 Ways to Find Your Wild Side (Start With a Nap)", 17 January 2013."The modern conveniences that increase our productivity and synch us up globally—electric light, jet travel, computers—may also be disrupting our bodies’ natural sleep cycles. The phenomenon called the post-prandial dip—that drop in energy after lunch—was traditionally treated by many cultures with an afternoon nap, a practice largely abandoned today. And science writer Jesse Gamble reports that in the absence of artificial light, humans revert to biphasic sleep that is quite different from the standard sleep pattern in industrialized society. Rather than an uninterrupted eight-hour block, we naturally sleep twice per night in roughly four-hour segments: from just after sunset until midnight, and again from 2 a.m. to sunrise. In between is a quiet, meditative time during which humans historically talked, went for a walk, or connected with a partner. Today, night waking is often diagnosed as insomnia and corrected with sleeping pills, but a book may be a better prescription. And a midday nap."