The clock strikes three and I cajole my three year old to a nap. It's 'that' time of the day; I'm back from a gruelling morning of teaching teenagers with raging hormones, picking up my angel from Montessori and a lunch session which involves chasing after my daughter and popping in a morsel in her mouth whenever I'm lucky enough to catch up with her. And then it's siesta time.

If I don't have my shut-eye in the afternoon, little green men start pounding my brain incessantly with sledgehammers; the world begins to spin; I get cranky and start hallucinating. Okay, so maybe that's exaggerating but you get the drift. I 'need' that afternoon nap like a junkie needs a whiff of coke. I plan my day around it, because a woman's day doesn't end when she comes through the door from work. There's the kitchen to deal with and the tired hubby intent on unloading the pressures of work at home and of course the hyperactive kids and the late night dinner obligations you simply can't get out of. I really can't fathom how women who work 9 to 5 handle the domestic chores, as well as the social obligations without the blessed siesta at midday. I salute them.

Luckily, I'm not the only one who suffers from this addiction. A siesta, a blissful short nap, is a common tradition in countries with high temperatures and intake of heavy food at the midday meal. These two factors combined contribute to the feeling of post-lunch drowsiness. The original concept of a siesta seems to have been merely that of a midday break intended to allow people to spend time with their friends and family. The concept of a midday nap is also prominent in other tropical or subtropical countries, where the afternoon heat dramatically reduces productivity. In some individuals, a brief drop in blood glucose levels caused by the body's normal insulin response to a heavy meal, may produce drowsiness after the meal that can encourage a nap. However, the drop also occurs in the absence of a meal.

In Bangladesh and Indian Bengal, some people still observe the Bhat-ghum meaning 'rice sleep' — a nap after lunch. The Chinese call the afternoon nap xiuxi or wushui. Almost all schools in mainland China and Taiwan have a half-hour nap period right after lunch. At this time all lights are switched off and one is not allowed to do anything other than rest or sleep. Some Japanese offices have special rooms known as napping rooms for their workers to take a nap during lunch break or after overtime work.

Thirty-year-old Salim, a banker, says that he makes it a point to drive home for lunch and a nap. “I wake up at five in the morning and after that it's a non-stop day. I need to come home to unwind at midday and have a light lunch and a nap for 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes are the sweetest sleep in my 24 hours. It's like slamming the doors on the worries of the world,” he concludes.

Laila, a 50-year-old housewife and mother of three, also needs to lie down after a chaotic day which involves the kitchen, dealing with domestic help in the form of maids, milkmen, the janitor and gardener who do little to 'help'. “I lock myself up and my maids have strict instructions to tell anyone who asks that 'Madam is unavailable'. My kids and all my friends know that they have to avoid me at all costs between 300pm to 400pm. That one hour as the afternoon sun sears down on all creation, is all mine. Minus the kids, minus the problems, with the room to myself,” she says with a wink.

Alia, 35, who is the owner of a beauty salon, says that she manages to steal a 10 minute power nap every afternoon. “At any time in the late afternoon when business is slow I sneak into one of the cubicles of my salon and re-charge my cells. Those 10 minutes really do the trick and rejuvenate me,” she says with a toss of her dyed hair.

Shahida, a Montessori teacher says she isn't one of those blessed people who can brag of sleeping as soon as their head hits the pillow. “It takes me half an hour to gear up for sleep so I simply have to content myself with lying down in the afternoon to rest my back. Even though I hardly drift off into deep sleep, psychologically I appease myself with the thought that I'm rested and charged up for the second half of the day.”

Rahim, a B. Com student, says he can hardly avoid late nights. “It's either assignments or gallivanting around town with friends that keeps me up till 200 to 300 in the morning. Then after I come back from college in the afternoon, I just crash on my bed and snooze for at least three hours. I don't care if I don't eat but I 'need' to sleep in the late afternoon.”

The Washington Post, on February 13, 2007, published an extended piece on studies in Greece that indicate that those who nap have less risk of heart attack. That's a fact I share merrily with everyone. So if you're fortunate enough to enjoy a life of leisure at home or a half-day job or a job at an office which is a stone's throw away from your home then come aboard — join The Siesta Club.