We should all clap for Griffey's nap

"Many a player have told of Junior waking up from a catnap, grabbing his bat, heading straight to the plate and hitting a home run." — 710 ESPN Seattle

It was the Nap Heard 'Round the World.

What a spectacle, after we've gone through everything from economic meltdowns to police beatdowns, to see Seattle making national and international news because our star athlete couldn't stay awake on the job.

Well I say: Don't let the stressed-out carpers bully you, Ken Griffey Jr. Don't let the "sleep is for wimps" crowd spoil your dreams.

It's not only OK that you were found stone-cold asleep in the Mariners' clubhouse in the middle of a game.

It ought to be team policy.

"Hmmm, the team is in last place? Well, the data are absolutely clear that naps are incredibly beneficial for boosting performance and alertness," says Mark Rosekind, chief scientist at Alertness Solutions, a California firm that helps astronauts to Olympic athletes handle fatigue.

Hear that, Mariners? You're handling this all wrong. You're acting as if nap time is some sort of scandal.

You should embrace the nap.

Rosekind isn't some drowsy layabout. He ran NASA's Fatigue Countermeasures Program. He did a groundbreaking study on fighter pilots in which he gave them 25-minute naps in their cockpits during long-haul flights (someone else took over flying the planes).

He wired the pilots to record brain and eye activity. For those who snoozed, the bottom line is their flying performance went up 34 percent. Alertness, measured by reaction times, soared 54 percent.

This revelation led many airlines around the world to adopt policies encouraging pilots to nap on the job.

Airlines elsewhere, that is. In America, the FAA wouldn't hear of it. We're too tough to nap.

"In America, the attitude if you nap is that you're a slacker, that you're somehow stupid and lazy," Rosekind says. "But the data show the exact opposite.

"Nothing pumps up performance as much as a nap."

In his book "Brain Rules," University of Washington bioengineering professor John Medina says every person has a "nap zone" — a period of transient sleepiness somewhere about 12 hours after the midpoint of the previous night's sleep.

You can either fight it or nap it, he writes. The book includes an account of President Lyndon Johnson putting on his pajamas every afternoon to sack out for 30 minutes in his office.

"Such presidential behavior might seem downright weird," Medina writes. "But if you ask sleep researchers ... it was LBJ who was acting normally; the rest of us, who refuse to bring our pajamas to work, are the abnormal ones."

For Griffey, who apparently has trouble sleeping and often stays up half the night, I guess his "nap zone" coincides approximately with "game time."

So why not let Junior snooze? As long as someone remembers to wake him to hit.

A researcher at Boston University, Dr. William Anthony, wrote a book Griffey would appreciate called "The Art of Napping at Work" (I suppose Rule No. 1 should be: Don't get caught.)

He says workers who ignore the nap craving instead "go to the watercooler, drink caffeine, or stare at their computer screen and don't do anything."

That's hitting a little close to home. It's like he watched me writing this column.

Anyway, the point is, Seattle: Lay off Griffey. He's onto something.

"What other strategy can improve performance by 34 percent in just 25 minutes?" Rosekind asks. "Maybe the whole team could use a nap."

Yes. It's going to be a long summer at Safeco Field. Maybe we all could.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.