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In South Asia, a post-lunch nap is common, and the idea of going to sleep after a light massage with mustard oil (hmmm?) to induce drowsiness was very popular before industrialization. It was also the custom to consume a light snack during this ritual; it was thought that this practice would make one a better person. Enlightenment through mustard oil and twiglets?

Afternoon sleep is also a common habit in China and Taiwan; called xiuxi or wushui in Chinese. Its main difference from the siesta is that it lasts between two and three hours and it’s even a constitutional right - who says the Chinese have a bad human rights record! Almost all schools in Mainland China and Taiwan have a half-hour ‘”nap period’” right after lunch. This is a time when all lights are out and one is not allowed to do anything else than sleep. Just over the water, some Japanese offices have special rooms known as napping rooms for their workers to take a nap during lunch break or after overtime work.

In Spain the siesta is a time for digesting lunch, generally the biggest meal of the day, spending time with friends or family and having a power nap. Scientists have been investigating napping for several years, both the 20-minute power-nap and sleeps of 1-2 hours; this and massive anecdotal evidence suggest that an average power-nap duration of around 20-30 minutes is most effective. So, have a light doze, but avoid falling into a longer sleep which will start you on a normal sleep cycle (4 hours to complete!) which if interrupted leaves you groggy and sleepier than before. Apparently, naps are as good as a night of sleep for some types of memory tasks. A National Institute of Mental Health sponsored Harvard University study showed a midday snooze “reverses information overload”. The NIMH team wrote “The bottom line is: we should stop feeling guilty about taking that “power-nap” at work. I love a happy ending - don’t you?

For more on the Traditional siesta -http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/siesta/

Included here, a contribution found by Michael Bright, a seasoned Bootlacer and trekker with us in the recent Jebel Siroua trek in Morocco……..

Prepared by Eden Fairchild

The Tolkeinesque buildings above are part of the ancient fortified granary or agadir built into an impressive towering cliff at the saffron producing village Tizgui. Although we didn’t know it when we set out in the broad valley of the Zagmouzen river this incredible place was our goal. It was mentioned casually by Said, the cook and right hand man to Ahmed the Tuareg guide, that maybe tomorrow, inshallah, we would be able to visit an agadir, and would be shown around by the headman of the village. He pointed out a couple of granaries in the villages through which we toiled on our passage up into the Jebel Siroua massif. We weren’t that impressed but, like good tourists agreed that yes, that would be interesting and asked what was kept inside the granary fortresses. Said, in his sparky blend of English, Spanish and French talked about grain and other products stored for each family in what I thought he said were small store rooms - up to a hundred in this one. I looked dubiously at the crumbling edifice. It was bigger than the surrounding flat roofed Berber houses, but a hundred rooms? All became clear as we crested the ridge below Tisgui which, encrusted with tier upon tier of threshing grounds, lay between the village and the ravine which formed a further protection to the already fortified agadir, clinging on the cliff behind the locked gate in the solid stone wall - no mud bricks here! Abdullah the Headman led us into a cool chasm in the rocks below the agadir. Here the winter snow melt of millenia has carved out a vertical, almost tubular chimney through the rock - another natural defence to guard their riches. And they are riches indeed. The Taliouine area produces 3 tons of saffron annually.

In answer to that question we asked when walking out of the mountains - a pound of dry saffron (0.45 kg) requires the harvesting of some 50,000 flowers (there are up to 200,000 strands in a pound), the equivalent of a football pitch’s area of cultivation. The current saffron price per Kg is from around £1000 - they say that local prices are a tenth of this……. I think we were quoted €450 a kilo……hmmm………

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