Psychology says adults who cannot nap without setting three alarms, closing every door, and telling someone where they’ll be aren’t overly cautious, they never had the kind of childhood where resting felt like something the world would let them get away with

It is, in many cases, a residue of a childhood in which rest was not a neutral act. What follows is a reading of the research, not a diagnosis of anyone’s nap habits. The adult version of this looks like the alarms, the closed doors, the check-in text. Together they add up to an adult who cannot rest until the environment has been made accountable to them. The quiet version of the pointThe adult who cannot nap without staging the nap is not being difficult.