Naps

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Howard Dean's presidential run has been a rocket ride, a flight that has sent him higher, faster than even he expected. So what was the low point? It came one night last summer, after the umpteenth campaign road trip, when he dragged himself home at 2 a.m., then turned around and left three hours later without ever seeing his family. "That was the pits," he said. Dean shared that domestic disappointment and other thoughts, musing on everything from a balanced budget to the art of napping, in a session this week with reporters packed elbow-to-elbow aboard his campaign charter, flying high over the Southwest desert.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has charged Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant with a safety violation after an employee "deliberately became inattentive" — meaning he was caught napping — last year in the room housing diesel generators for use in an emergency. Kory Raftery, spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, said Tuesday the employee was promptly dismissed after a supervisor discovered him, and the company does not intend to challenge the NRC's findings. The federal agency said it appeared to be an isolated incident and classified the infraction as of very low safety significance.

FOR THOSE seasoned air-travelers among you who delight in watching the clouds roll by as you soar through the stratosphere, or simply enjoy using your flight time to catch up on that new book that everyone at home is talking about, we offer a reassuring thought: Your pilot may at this very moment be sleeping.Please check.According to the recent proposal of an FAA task force, short naps on long-distance flights may actually increase pilot awareness.Twenty-one pilots on trans-Pacific study flights took naps while their planes were cruising over deep ocean (the other crew members watched the plane)

Shhh. Don't bother the furry one....  A koala takes an afternoon nap in a tree at the San Diego Zoo on Sept. 23.

The foundation of Navy's football dominance over Army can be found hundreds of miles north of Annapolis, at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I. It is there that a long-haired quarterback from Hawaii named Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada cut his locks and honed his skills in running the same triple-option offense he had in high school. It is there that a college soccer goalkeeper from New Jersey named Sander Gossard learned how to play football and turned three years in the Navy into a four-year career as an offensive lineman.

It's the middle of the afternoon, you've been at work more than five hours, and you can't seem to stay awake, let alone stop yawning or focus on your current task. For many Americans, this scenario is all too familiar. The reasons for such afternoon lulls range from the scientific to the obvious, from clinically diagnosed conditions to simply not having had enough sleep. For whatever reasons, they also seem more pronounced in the winter. They also can be overcome. "It's an inherent aspect of our sleep-wake cycle," says Dr. Dominic Roca, director of the Connecticut Center for Sleep Medicine in Stamford.

Citizens of cyberspace, beware: Your free ride on the "information superhighway" could be drawing to an end.The National Science Foundation is completing plans to privatize the "main lane" of the Internet, that computer freeway traveled by 20 million people around the globe.Jamie Love, executive director of the Taxpayer Assets Project, a Washington group affiliated with Ralph Nader, said the NSF's privatization plan could lead to higher connection fees for Internet users and a decline in citizen activism on the net."

Telemarketers took the day off Sept. 11. A somber national commemoration of one of the worst tragedies in American history got most of them to stop dialing for dollars for a few hours at least. That's what the quest for a little peace and quiet at home has come to. No one cares if you're sleeping late or taking a bath or eating dinner or swing-dancing in the dining room with the rugs rolled up. If you're sucker enough to answer the phone, they've got you. Sounds like no one's there at first, then a distant voice mispronounces your name and asks how you're doing today.

What animal-lover hasn't daydreamed about developing a product or service that will become as popular as Kitty Litter -- and even half as profitable?Most of us choose the safe route and keep the job that pays the mortgage.Patti Moran didn't have that option when she started her pet-sitting business a decade ago. When her corporate job with its comfortable salary was eliminated, she found herself unemployed at 29, with no decent prospects."If anyone had told me then that losing my job was a blessing in disguise, I wouldn't have believed them," she says.

You've flown across the country, checked into your hotel and have a busy week of business -- or pleasure -- ahead of you. The last thing you need is trouble falling asleep.The National Sleep Foundation, in cooperation with Hilton Hotels Corp., has compiled a list of helpful hints about how you can minimize jet lag and get quality sleep when you're traveling:* Do anticipate time-zone changes. Get up and go to bed earlier a few days prior to an eastbound trip and a few hours later for a westbound trip.

When is it OK to catch some shut-eye on the job? Workplace snoozing has been the topic of an awful lot of water-cooler jesting lately — at least among those awake enough to remember their conversations. First, there were a rash of reported incidents of air-traffic controllers nodding off during late-night shifts, though no serious accidents occurred. Then, Vice President Joe Biden became a target of nationwide fun after he nodded off during his boss' noontime budget speech.

When someone, somehow, made off with the giant Elvis that stood — in full pelvis-shaking glory — atop a Pulaski Highway diner, Scunny McCusker felt a pang of sympathy in his gut, where a peanut butter and banana sandwich might ordinarily be. As owner of the long-Elvis'ed Nacho Mama's in Canton Square, he knows that owning an Elvis statue in this town isn't easy. Consider what his has been through. Someone ripped off one arm, then someone else the other, leaving it an altogether armless "Elvis de Milo."

No matter the outcome of Saturday's men's lacrosse game between Loyola and Navy, the Midshipmen will stand near the southern end of Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and sing the "Navy Blue and Gold" song at game's end. And Charley Toomey will likely join them. That might seem odd considering that Toomey, as the coach of the Greyhounds, will do everything in his power to guide his team to a victory over Navy. But he is the former head coach of the Naval Academy Prep School team and a former assistant coach for the varsity squad, and Toomey's link to the Midshipmen still resonates with him today.

One doesn't have to be a doctor to question whether working 30 hours straight yields quality medical care. Small wonder that the hours medical residents are required to keep have become such a controversy over the years. But the latest study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine focuses on a key question: What would it cost for teaching hospitals to reduce residents' hours, and would the benefit (assuming there is one) be worth it? The cost is clear enough. If hospitals like Johns Hopkins Hospital or University of Maryland Medical Center were to follow the recent recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and limit shifts with no naps to 16 hours and reduce the workload of residents, it would cost the industry between $1.1 billion and $2.5 billion (much of it to simply hire more residents and doctors to supervise them)

So where are we on Larry Summers, the president's top economic adviser, falling asleep at that White House meeting last week? We found it embarrassing? We understood, even envied the man? I would like to know how my fellow Americans feel about this because, over the years, napping has been a favorite subject of mine - both as participant and as champion. I think the American people would be, on the whole, more productive and less prone to accidents and violence if we all just took a little nap every day. This should be a national priority.

The foundation of Navy's football dominance over Army can be found hundreds of miles north of Annapolis, at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I. It is there that a long-haired quarterback from Hawaii named Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada cut his locks and honed his skills in running the same triple-option offense he had in high school. It is there that a college soccer goalkeeper from New Jersey named Sander Gossard learned how to play football and turned three years in the Navy into a four-year career as an offensive lineman.

For a young man who, during scrimmages the past two weekends, has had little trouble finding the end zone after catching passes, Harry Spencer begins his career at Navy with modest objectives.Though Spencer is just a freshman and there are at least four players ahead of him at the two wide-out positions, one glance at him frolicking in the secondary elicits memories of Rob Taylor, Phil McConkey and other storied Midshipmen receivers of the past."I'd like to make the travel squad," said Spencer, a Miami native.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been a difficult freshman year for Jehiel Lewis.Lewis had to make the transition to Division I basketball, which meant playing sparingly for much of the season. He had to adjust to the academic rigors of college, which meant finding enough time to study.And there were the unexpected events that would have been hard for any freshman, and most upperclassmen, to handle. Badly bruising his collarbone was tough enough. Learning that his father, Ronald Lewis, had suffered a stroke was nearly too much.

Sander Gossard's journey began seven years ago, as a promising goalkeeper on a Division I soccer team in upstate New York. It has taken him on a path he never envisioned. When Navy (6-4) plays at Northern Illinois (6-5) on Tuesday night, Gossard will be there for the Midshipmen, a reserve offensive lineman who made his college football debut against the Huskies last season. Far from being a star, the 6-foot-4, 272-pound senior is a survivor, in more than a few ways. "My mom and I get a good chuckle out of it sometimes," Gossard, 25, said recently, standing on the practice field in Annapolis.

Sleep-deprived Americans are increasingly turning to the power nap and afternoon siesta to restore alertness and enhance performance, studies show. And some spa patrons are shelling out big bucks just to snooze. The Kohler Waters Spa in Burr Ridge, Ill., which opened in April, offers a 60-minute massage with a 15-minute nap service for $150. "We are seeing so many of our guests coming in that are having trouble sleeping at night," said Jean Kolb, Kohler's wellness business director. "This is a way for us to really extend an opportunity for them to have total relaxation."