By Leslie Garcia
The Dallas Morning News

Some tips to help you nap Here are some tips, gleaned from Jill Murphy Long's book and a phone conversation, to help ease your way into happy napping: · Take baby steps. That way, she says, "it won't be such a shock to your system." Maybe tomorrow, light some candles in the bathroom and take a bath. Or go outside, lie on the ground and stare at the sky. · Drop the guilt. Who's making you feel guilty - the housekeeping police? Trust us; nobody's going to come by with white gloves and scold you for napping instead of dusting. · Promise yourself one nap per week. Feel free to expand. · Experiment with times. Ideally, Long writes, you should nap eight hours after waking up in the morning and eight hours before falling asleep at night. So if you're on a 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. schedule, your primo nap time is 3 p.m. · Create a nap space.Put lavender in a bowl; buy a special pillowcase. "It should be like taking a vacation in your own home," she says. · Make it a celebration of you. "You should anticipate it," she says. "Afterwards, you savor it and then build upon it." · Consider your nap as important a commitment as going to the doctor or meeting with a client. Write it in your appointment book. · Get in the mood. Drink a cup of chamomile tea. ("One day, I was drinking it about 11 o'clock, and 20 minutes later I was exhausted," she says.) Put on music (the book offers suggested tunes). Eat a lunch high in carbohydrates. Massage scented oil into your hands. · Put a pair of clean white socks into the dryer for a few minutes, then put them on. Ahhhh. The comforting warmth will make you want to curl up and snooze. · Turn off the phone, the TV, the computer. · Keep it short. Usually, 20 to 30 minutes is plenty. Much more and you'll be groggy - plus, it'll adversely affect your nighttime sleep.

Jill Murphy Long wants to tuck a blanket up under your chin, light a vanilla candle by your bed, slip in a soothing CD and say, "Sleep, honey. It may be only 2 p.m., but you deserve it."

In our heart of hearts, we know she's right. We DO deserve a nap. But in our go-go-go culture, naps - like double butterscotch sundaes and skinny-dipping - have become guilty pleasures that more likely than not go unfulfilled.

"What surprised me was that women would not give themselves permission to nap," says Long, who queried 200 women for her appropriately titled "Permission to Nap: Taking Time to Restore Your Spirit" (Sourcebooks Inc.; $14.95).

"They're busy, but so busy taking care of other people they won't carve time out for themselves."

They should. In her book, Long quotes several statistics. Among them: About 60million Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. And most women get less sleep per night than men.

When men need a nap, they take it without guilt, she says. She writes that Sir Winston Churchill changed into his PJs to nap, and that a half-dozen U.S. presidents, as well as such big minds as Albert Einstein, napped regularly.

In "Permission to Nap," Long points out the benefits of naps. She quotes a noted sleep researcher: "Healthy sleep has been proven to be the single most important determinant in predicting longevity, more influential than diet, exercise, or heredity."

Yet women have a hard time shaking nap guilt, she says. At a book signing, one woman even told her, "I take naps all the time, but I'm lazy."

But naps, she stresses, do not a lazy person make. Long takes them almost daily - despite a plate filled with writing, raising a child, practicing yoga, running a household, going on book tours.

"I do love to sleep," she says. "I get at least eight hours a night but I move really fast. That's why I have so much energy. I play and have fun, but when I nap, I nap."

When the weather's nice, she snoozes in a hammock suspended between two spruce trees outside her Colorado home.

Winter afternoons, she dons her bear-claw slippers, pushes aside the bamboo shades hung over her daybed, turns off the low-watt light bulb in the paper lantern and rests her head on fake-fur pillows.

She wears orange silk pajamas with matching slippers to bookstore signings. After speaking, she sends her audience off with the words: "Nap well and often."

Women look at her funny. "Maybe I'll try," they say.

Well, Long wants you to do more than try. She wants you to set aside 20 minutes - 20 measly minutes!

"The world won't end," she says. "Just be with yourself. Just be quiet. That's so hard for Americans."

See, you don't even have to actually sleep. Just rest those weary bones. And afterward - trust her on this - you'll feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

She fills her book with tips that utilize all the senses.

For sight: colors, and how they'll help slumber. For smell: recipes for potpourri and scented jasmine paper for your dresser drawers. For taste, she offers the lowdown on a dozen kinds of tea.

"The whole concept is treating yourself like a guest in your house, which we don't do," Long says. "It's not being selfish. We deserve this."

A nap will not only refresh and revitalize you, it will also help the creative process, she says. After all, it helped Leonardo da Vinci. And it helped her, too.

"With my (mystery) novel, I'd think, 'How do I get (the protagonist) Monty out of that situation?' I'd take a nap, wake up and - 'This is it!'"