Does Boris Johnson take an afternoon nap? Yes, according to a Downing Street insider who told the Times today that a post-lunch slumber was not unusual. Boris’s press secretary took a different view: ‘The Prime Minister does not have a nap. Those reports are untrue’, she said. Well, he should.
For one, Boris would be delighted with the inevitable comparison with Churchill that springs to mind. Winston slept deeply every afternoon during the war. ‘Take off your clothes and get into bed,’ he advised in a letter to his nephew. ‘Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one.’
Churchill is not the only illustrious napper. Mohammed snored serenely every afternoon in paradise, a cloud for a pillow, according to the Legend of Croquemitaine by the 19th century French author Ernest l’Epine.
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