Famous Nappers 1
Thomas Alva Edison: the man, the myth, the legend
I figured now is as good a time as any to talk about one of the first napping heroes to inspire us: Thomas Alva Edison. 1093 patented inventions, most notably including the light bulb. The godfather of industry, according to some. The godfather of electricity according to others, who I believe are wrong (Edison’s patents had more to do with filaments than electricity — Nikola Tesla patented the electric transmission of power in 1888 and demonstrated alternating current electricity in 1893). But the godfather of indoor lighting? I buy that.
But he was just a man who put on his pants one leg at a time. How did he pull off 1093 inventions? Well, as many know, Edison was a renowned (notorious? sardonically irreverent?) napper.
Edison reportedly found sleep to be a waste of time — perhaps this is not ironic, as I believe that rightly or wrongly, the invention of indoor lighting has had the most significantly negative impact on human sleep patterns since human beings have existed and benefited from sleep.
Regardless, I believe that to varying degrees, all people need sleep, independently of where/when/how they get it (though I also believe that all sleep, including naps, is not created equal — more to come there). I also believe that Edison’s actions suggest that he would agree, given the reports of his routine naps across his property.
So raise a glass to TAE, the namesake of our Signal group chat and a major inspiration for this Substack!
Author Thomas Wolfe in his book "You Can't Go Home Again" has a passage about sleep (more about "laziness") in which he references Edison's lack of sleep....
“Well," he said, quite seriously, "it's this way: you work because you're afraid not to. You work because you have to drive yourself to such a fury to begin. That part's just plain hell! It's so hard to get started that once you do you're afraid of slipping back. You'd rather do anything than go through all that agony again--so you keep going--you keep going faster all the time--you keep going till you couldn't stop even if you wanted to. You forget to eat, to shave, to put on a clean shirt when you have one. You almost forget to sleep, and when you do try to you can't--because the avalanche has started, and it keeps going night and day. And people say: 'Why don't you stop sometime? Why don't you forget about it now and then? Why don't you take a few days off?' And you don't do it because you can't--you can't stop yourself--and even if you could you'd be afraid to because there'd be all that hell to go through getting started up again. Then people say you're a glutton for work, but it isn't so. It's laziness--just plain, damned, simple laziness, that's all...Napoleon--and--and Balzac--and Thomas Edison--these fellows who never sleep more than an hour or two at a time, and can keep going night and day--why that's not because they love to work! It's because they're really lazy--and afraid not to work because they know they're lazy! Why, hell yes!..I'll bet you anything you like if you could really find out what's going on in old Edison's mind, you'd find that he wished he could stay in bed every day until two o'clock in the afternoon! And then get up and scratch himself! And then lie around in the sun for awhile! And hang around with the boys down at the village store, talking about politics, and who's going to win the World Series next fall!”