Who knew there could be a(nother) nap expert?

One of my favorite people on this Earth dance has been Natalie Slefinger. Not only was she pretty enough to be named the Maine Blueberry Queen (she knew the correct amount of maggots allowed in a flat of the fruit), but she would share her hard-earned expense checks from The Courier Gazette, buying beer at the Black Pearl.

She was also a connoisseur of naps.

Natalie always said that a good nap included drool – drool enough to affix the head to the pillow. “When you wake up from a good nap, the pillow should come with you,” was the Slefinger Doctrine.

Those memories all came flooding back this week with the announcement from Dr. Sara Mednick, she of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., and a candidate for My New Best Friend.

Men’s Journal has pronounced Mednick to be “at the forefront of napping research.” Napping research? Without me? Who knew there was such a thing? She gets paid for this?

I have always been an aggressive advocate of the nap, an overlooked benefit for the human body. As a news reporter, I cultivated the ability to nap anywhere, anytime to counteract the long hours and long waits between assignments.

When the office closed at 5 p.m. and the marathon city council session was set for 7 p.m., it was naptime. Luckily, I was never caught on the job. When the councilors droned past 10 p.m., the nap benefits were obvious.

Now that I am retired, I have refined the nap technique to a science. Get up. Eat breakfast. Do the crossword puzzle. Take a nap.

I used to think it was well developed, highly refined sloth. But no.

Dr. Mednick says (honest to God) that naps seem to solidify the connection between neurons involved in muscle memory. “It’s like a welding machine. When you wake up, your neurons perform the same function as before but now faster and with more accuracy.”

What she calls “power naps” can lift productivity and mood, lower stress and improve memory and learning. Brain activity stays high during the day after a nap, but decreases without a nap, she swears.

If there were television ads for napping, celebrity spokesmen would be Napoleon (if he were alive) who napped in the saddle before and after battles, Jack Kennedy (if he were alive) who used to nap in his famous rocking chair, and Lance Armstrong, who always takes a nap (with and without Sheryl Crow) after long training runs.

But this is not all fun and games. Napping is not for the frivolous.

Naps up to five minutes are surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness. And naps of up to 20 minutes clear the brain of useless information (city budgets) and help with long-term memory, the good doctor reports.

Warning. Naps in excess of 20 minutes can awaken the napper in “slow-wave sleep.”

That produces “sleep inertia.” In that state, the limbs are heavy, eyes cannot focus, speech is slurred, the mind is sluggish.

I am not sure I could tell the difference.

I need a nap.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.