L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano C all them as you l i k e : n a p s , power naps, or a f t e r n o o n naps… those 30 minutes of postprandial rest are a sine-qua-non daily fea- ture for many people around the world, but perhaps no one appreciates them and made them part of their cul- ture as much as the people of the Mediterranean and the South Americans. For way too much time, the unfair and rather offen- sive joke that we napped in the afternoon because we were lazy made the rounds in other countries. Truth is that, as it is easily noticeable, the afternoon nap is more c o m m o n i n a r e a s o f t h e globe where the hours after lunchtime can become sig- nificantly hot. So they were, at least in their earliest years of existence, the result of the sheer necessity to stay away from the scorching sun dur- ing the warmer part of the day. B u t i t ' s a l s o d o w n t o digestion, of course, and how i t c a n s l o w u s d o w n a n d make us a bit hazy for some time after lunch. In Italy, we l o v e a f t e r n o o n n a p s , s o much so that, still today, store opening hours in most of the country are set around t h e i d e a e v e r y o n e t a k e s them: they close at lunch and then open again around 15.30 or 16.00 (although this is no longer that common in cities). Depending on which part of Italy you are from, you may know it by a different name, but everyone under- stands words like sonnelli- n o , p i s o l i n o a n d t h e Roman pennichella. The etymology of sonnellino is not that hard to understand: it comes from Italian word for "sleep," sonno, and it means "short sleep," so… just what it is, really. Pisolino is more inter- e s t i n g l i n g u i s t i c a l l y . I t should come from the 2nd c e n t u r y B C L a t i n verb piso, which means "to grind." In later times, bakers from the Tuscan city of Pis- t o i a w o u l d u s e i t s diminutive pisolare to indi- cate the partial grinding of wheat. Linguists believed the connection between the verb and the action of sleeping may be onomatopeic, as the sound of pisolare resembles that of a person snoring. In Italy, we also use the sen- tence schiacciare un pisoli- no, which literally means to "press a nap" or "stump over a nap." Apparently, the locu- t i o n c o m e s f r o m R e n a i s - sance Tuscany, where gold- smiths used to place liquid gold in molds to cool, a pro- cedure known as stiacciare, a verb that closely resembles "schiacciare." And because, w h i l e i t h a p p e n e d , t h e y could rest and take a little n a p , t h e a c t i o n of stiacciare got closer and closer to the idea of napping, hence "schiacciare un pisoli- no." In Rome and central Italy, y o u ' l l h e a r o f t e n t h e w o r d p e n n i c a o r i t s diminutive pennicchella. The word comes from the L a t i n p e n d i c u l o , w h i c h translates as "to hang" or "to be suspended." The term, therefore, likely refers to the typical position of a person's head when they fall asleep on a chair or an armchair, their head "hanging" on their shoulders or on the back of the chair itself. O u r p i s o l i n i o r p e n - n i c h e l l e , w e h a v e s a i d , always happen in the after- noon, usually after lunch. You know the drill: you eat, then suddenly your eyelids get heavy, your mind unfo- cused and the need of resting your head on the office desk "just for a couple of minutes" almost becomes unbearable. Some years ago, British researchers found out that the culprit of our sudden need to take naps after eat- ing is no other than …blood sugar. Indeed, it seems that high levels of glucose in our blood can lead the brain cells i n c h a r g e o f k e e p i n g u s awake and alert to, quite lit- e r a l l y , t a k e a l i t t l e n a p , which means we need to take o n e , t o o . N e u r o n s i n t h e h y p o t h a l a m u s p r o d u c e a protein called orexin, which r e g u l a t e s t h e s l e e p - w a k e cycle in humans; these neu- rons are naturally less active during the night, but in some circumstances, they can go awry and do the same during the day. By exposing neurons to small increases in glucose levels, just like those we'd experience after eating, it emerged that even the tiniest rise of sugar in our blood can "turn off" orexin-producing neurons and make us sleepy. The connection between glu- cose and sleeping is also visi- ble when the opposite hap- p e n s : f o r i n s t a n c e , w h e n levels of glucose are particu- larly low in our blood, like when we are hungry, orexin- producing neurons are more active, and that's why we usually can't sleep when we need a sandwich and glass of milk. According to the already- m e n t i o n e d B r i t i s h s t u d y , which was carried out at the University of Manchester, all this can be explained easily with one word: evolution. Basically, the more awake we were when hungry, the more likely we were to go look for food. On the other hand, a full belly meant our survival was guaranteed – at least for a while – and we could rest. It's not all, because appar- ently there is a connection between orexin-producing neurons' response to glucose and obesity, because they also control appetite and metabolism and, if they mal- function, they may induce weight gain. Napping after lunch: is there anything more relaxing? (Photo: Marcovarro/Dreamstime) The healthy art of afternoon naps LUCA SIGNORINI LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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