THE SIESTA TOPIC

The newspaper ‘Time’ states in an opinion piece that can be found on its website that in Spain it is common for workdays to begin at 10 am and to be interrupted at 2 pm. From that moment on, and after the obligatory meal, Spaniards take a “three-hour” siesta, to return to their job and finish their work at 8 pm.
But what is true about this?
The reality is very different from the clichés we have heard so many times.
Cinema, literature or television have been imposing a series of preconceived ideas about various cultures of the world that have been accepted as simply true. So we end up thinking that we know a country perfectly well without even having visited it
To dismantle the topic of the siesta and the Spanish, the Health Education Foundation of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital together with the Spanish Bed Association carried out the first study on health and rest in 2009. This report, for which more than 3,000 people were consulted, gives us some interesting data about this custom that is not so much in Spain, and it is good to give a real image against the one offered by the international media.
On the other hand, due to the high temperatures that usually exist in Spain at midday, especially in the summer months, to perform any work or develop any activity either mental or physical is a complicated task. It is the so-called thermal stress.
As a physiological response to daily activity, between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m., there is a drop in alertness. Most businesses and shops close between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. because there is no point in keeping the shops open at a time when the streets are empty and there are no potential buyers. This means that opening hours are extended in the summer to 10.00 p.m. or even more in some areas of the Spanish coast.
60% of those surveyed said that they never take a nap. Only 16.2% of Spaniards take a siesta every day. 22%, sometimes and 3.2% only on weekends.
These data show that the siesta is not as ingrained in our culture as it might seem, and it dismantles a cliché that extends over time.