#43 Why Chinese people are so obsessed with having a nap 中国人为什么这么爱午睡？

大家好，欢迎回来MaoMi Chinese。

大家有午睡的习惯吗？午睡，意思是在中午睡觉，但不会睡很久，一般不到一个小时，有点像英文里的nap。午睡，对中国人来说，是一个非常重要的习惯。今天，我们一起来聊一聊午睡。

我以前习惯了每天都午睡。我刚刚来英国的时候，我没有办法午睡，因为英国学校没有午睡时间。这让我很不习惯。同样地，一些外国朋友刚到中国的时候，也很不习惯午睡。如果你在中国的学校上学，每天吃完午饭以后，你的同学们都会回宿舍，或者回家，休息，午睡。两点左右，大家才会回来，开始上下午的课。如果学校没有宿舍，学生会在教室里，趴在桌子上休息。如果你在中国的公司工作，每天吃完午饭以后，你会发现，你的同事们都拉开折叠床，拿出被子，枕头和眼罩，准备午睡。他们会午睡到两点左右，才开始下午的工作。

中文里有一句玩笑：“中午不睡，下午崩溃”。为什么午睡这么重要呢？我认为有这三个原因：

第一个原因，午睡这个习惯有很久的历史。古代的中国是一个农业社会。中文里有一句话：“一日之计在于晨”，意思是早晨，早上，是一天最重要的时候，所以人们很早起床，开始去田里工作。中午的时候人们已经很累了，所以需要休息，需要午睡。这样，他们下午才有力气继续工作。现在的中国也是一样的，人们一天需要学习或者工作很久，所以人们需要在中午的时候休息，午睡。

第二个原因，中国人喜欢吃米饭和面条。这些都是碳水，吃完了很容易觉得困，想要睡觉。

第三个原因，和天气有关。在中国，大部分地方，夏天都很热，夏天的中午更热，不适合工作。为了身体健康，午睡是最好的选择。

如果你昨天晚上没有睡好，也像中国人一样，午睡一会儿吧！

Hello everyone. Welcome back to MaoMi Chinese. Do you have the habit of taking a nap? Taking a nap, means to sleep in the day, but people won’t sleep for very long and it’s normally less than 1 hour. Taking a nap is a very important habit for Chinese people. Today let’s talk about it.

I was used to taking a nap. When I first came to the UK, I couldn’t have a nap, because there is no nap time. I was not really used to it. Likewise, when some foreign friends first come to China, they are not used to taking a nap either. If you study in a Chinese school, every day after lunch, your classmates would go back to their dormitories or go back home to rest and take a nap. Around 2 o’clock, everyone would come back and start afternoon’s lessons. If there are no dormitories in school, students would stay in classrooms and bend over on desks and rest. If you work in a Chinese company in China, every day after lunch you would realise that all of your colleagues start to unfold their foldable beds, take out blankets, pillows and eye masks and get ready to take a nap. They would sleep until around 2 o’clock, then start their work in the afternoon.

There is a joke in Chinese, “If you don’t sleep at noon, you would break down in the afternoon.” Why is taking a nap so important? I believe there are 3 reasons.

The first reason is that the habit of taking a nap has a long history. Ancient China was an agricultural society. There is a saying in Chinese, “Morning hours are the best time of the day to work”, which means that morning is the most important time of the day, therefore, people would get up very early and start to work in the field. At noon, people felt very tired already and needed to rest and take a nap. In this way, they could have energy to carry on working in the afternoon. The same as China nowadays, people normally need to study or work for a long time in a day, so people need to rest and nap at noon time.

The second reason is that Chinese people like eating rice and noodles. These are both carbohydrates. People feel very sleepy after eating them and want to nap.

The third reason is related to the weather. In most of places in China, it’s very hot in summer, and noon in summer is even hotter. This is not good for work. Taking a nap is the best choice for people’s health.

If you didn’t sleep well last night, take a nap, just like Chinese people do!