SPAIN'S headcount has risen to its highest figure in history – for the first time ever, the population has broken the 48 million barrier.
Siestas: Just a Spanish quirk? And why do they do it? National Sleep Society explains
18/07/2021
ONE word which is always instantly associated with Spain – and which even people who do not speak Spanish understand – is 'siesta', and many nationalities, including people from Spain itself, have often questioned why this is the case; how is it that this seems to be the only country where the inhabitants take a siesta?
“Very few stereotypes linked to our culture have stood the test of time the way the siesta has,” says the Spanish Sleep Society (SES).
But it is not just a 'Spain' thing; siestas are part of the tradition wherever the Roman Empire was present, even if few people practise it – and, in fact, only a tiny minority of Spanish people do so.
“The Romans stopped for lunch and to rest in the sixth hour of the day,” explains Juan José Ortega of the SES.
“And if we take into account that there are approximately 12 hours of daylight, give or take and depending upon where you are in the world, then in Spain, the sixth hour would be around 13.00 in the winter and about 15.00 in summer.”
The Romans called this time of the day the sexta, or 'sixth', which when Italian as a language developed from Latin, morphed into sesta.
Although 'sixth' in the Spanish language, in the feminine – since 'hour' or hora is a feminine noun – is sexta (in the masculine, it would be sexto), the word for the lunchtime nap is a Spanish variation of sesta.
Given that in the majority of cultures where a person works a full day, they take a break in the middle of it, it could be argued that the sexta is alive and well worldwide, even if it does not involve sleep; and it seems the Romans are responsible for instilling this working-hour structure into 21st-century society.
Sandwiches for lunch is a very modern concept
The Romans' largest meal of the day was at lunchtime, and its being moved to the evening, as is the case in most of Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries at least, is a fairly modern invention; as recently as World War II or even the 1960s, most northern Europeans, including the British, would be having their cooked meal at lunchtime.
Things changed as people started needing to commute longer distances for work in most countries, as they did not have time to go home for a cooked lunch; to a certain extent, this is catching on in Spain, mainly in big cities where it takes too long to get home and back and where opening hours for offices and shops tend to be longer, frequently all day, meaning midday breaks are taken in shifts and cannot afford to be more than an hour or two for this reason.
In these parts, workers are more likely to take a meal in a tupperware and heat it up in the office microwave, or nip into a café – hence the cut-price menú del día tradition, aimed at providing affordable lunches for the workforce - but will probably not eat a great deal as they need to be back on duty fairly quickly.
And it is large meals which are more likely to cause the urge for a kip, as the body has to work harder to digest them, meaning blood flows away from other organs into the stomach, less oxygen is used by the brain – that is, the parts of the brain governing anything other than digestion – and a feeling of stupor occurs; not really compatible with being on form at work.
For this reason, people with low blood pressure are more likely to feel tired, or even need to sleep, after eating even small amounts; where this is severe, it is a condition known as 'post-prandial hypotension'.
Why lunchtime cooked meals are still a 'thing' in Spain
Spain's micro-economy was traditionally based upon agriculture, with over a third of the workforce, until relatively recently, in farming; even towards the start of this century, the construction industry was one of the biggest employers nationwide; in other words, outdoor manual work.
Even at temperatures that would make you feel cold sitting in a pavement café, manual work gets you sweaty, so it starts to get too hot to work over the middle part of the day quite early in the year and continues to be until quite late in it.
Logically, this means that during much of Spain's history, from the Roman Empire until around 40 or 50 years ago and, to a large extent, even until about 15 or 20 years ago, the bulk of the workforce could not safely or comfortably do much for several hours in the middle of the day, but once the temperature dropped in the early evening, they could make up for lost time.
This trend passed to offices and shops, especially in the days when air-conditioning was still a luxury, rather than a necessity, for most businesses.
The end result is that Spain's typical working day ends late in the evening – depending upon industry, company or type of work, 'office' hours range from a start time of around 08.00 to 10.00, but then clocking-off time is anything from 19.00 to 22.00.
As this is a long chunk of the day away from home, a quick nap after lunch helps recharge your batteries before you go back to work for the second shift of the day.
In bigger towns and cities, and in tourist-heavy areas, the midday shutdown might only be from 14.00 to 16.00, if at all, but in smaller towns, it can be from 13.00 to 17.30, whether or not there is any practical need to do so.
Is it necessary?
For some time now, various economists, health experts, sociologists and politicians have been calling for a more northern European-style work schedule, since not returning home until night-time makes the work-life balance extremely difficult, especially for families, and even with an extended break in the middle of the day, it is tiring for employees to be starting work at around 09.00 and not finishing until 20.30.
These experts argue that, except for manual work, the fact that offices and shops are air-conditioned nowadays means there is no practical need to stop in the middle of the day, and that productivity may well increase dramatically if concentrated into a shorter period, with shorter breaks, and a larger chunk of the afternoon and evening to rest and play.
As it is, many public sector professions, as well as those in the financial industry such as high-street banks, tend to be on duty from approximately 08.00 until 14.00 or 15.30, with just a half-hour late-morning 'elevenses' break, and then the rest of the day is their own.
This, of course, is also conducive to taking a siesta; in the same way that most northern Europeans working standard office hours start cooking their evening meal once they get home at 18.00 or 19.00, Spaniards in banks and the public sector will typically cook their main meal of the day when they get home at around 15.00 or 16.00, then might have a doze to 'let it go down'.
Dieticians have long frowned upon Spain's habit of eating at 21.00 or 22.00 in the evening – which is, naturally, unavoidable for those who finish at the standard 20.30 – but this meal is normally much lighter; those same dieticians strongly praise the tradition of eating the biggest of the two at lunchtime.
But in the same way as people in most other countries do not practise the siesta, it is in fact quite rare in Spain.
Only at weekends, or if you're retired
Despite pre-conceived ideas about how Spaniards work their way through a five-course meal with a bottle of wine before sleeping for the rest of the afternoon, the siesta is normally only around 20-30 minutes at most; more than that, and your body slides into the full sleep-wake cycle, each of which lasts around 45 minutes, and once you're into it, it's harder to rouse yourself.
Also, dropping into the land of nod for several hours in the middle of the day can lead to insomnia at night, the SES warns.
Anecdotal evidence shows it is mostly the retired population which takes a quick nap after lunch, as they do not have to worry about getting back to work if it overruns, and that these days, few bother, especially those who cannot as they are commuters for whom it is not practical to get home for their midday meal.
A small number still say they take a post-lunch nap whenever they can, though, even if this is only at weekends.
Centre-right political party Ciudadanos' former leader at national level, Albert Rivera, was always a strong advocate for finishing the working day no later than 18.00 and cutting lunchtime to between 40 minutes and one hour; and although this idea gathered widespread support, an equal percentage of the population was dead against it.
It would mean a complete change in habits and routine – in the same way as northern Europeans being 'forced' to eat their main meal at lunchtime and work later would struggle to adjust, those who are used to a longer lunch break, night-time clock-off and cooked meal at 15.00 could find it hard to adapt.
School hours are already changing
This said, some parts of Spain have changed the school hours to give families more of a choice, and to help create a better work-life balance for parents.
Traditionally, primary school hours have been from 09.00 to noon and then 14.00 to 17.00, meaning canteens can cater for children in two shifts and they get time to play as well as to eat, and parents who prefer, are able, or want to save school lunch money, can pick their children up and feed them at home.
But it is not practical when your child stops for lunch whilst you are still in the office for another two hours, goes back to school just as you are stopping for lunch, and then finishes school right when you are returning to the office for another three-and-a-half hours.
In the Comunidad Valenciana, school hours were put to the vote and the vast majority of PTAs opted for an uninterrupted 09.00-14.00 classroom day, with a couple of short breaks; those centres which operate them also run after-school classes, fun activities or academic reinforcement sessions, until around 18.00 free of charge, then fee-paying ones until 20.00 or even later, to help out parents who could not provide childcare all afternoon due to their own working hours.
Most teachers in schools operating this new timetable said their pupils' performance improved dramatically and they were less tired, and had fewer concentration problems.
Covid forces adaptation
Whilst it is often argued that the long lunch break and siesta are a 'Spanish tradition', they are more a habit than part of a custom or culture, and it is just as likely that future generations will adapt to a light lunch and early finish in the same way other nations have done since practical considerations, like having to travel a longer distance to get to work, forced them to alter their routine.
The pandemic and opening restrictions thrust similar changes on Spain – depending upon region, shops and bars were often ordered to close as early as 18.00, and office staff to work from home, so a structural change in the national timetable has already had a dress rehearsal.
This said, in smaller towns in particular, shops which closed for the night at 18.00 still tended to shut between 14.00 and 16.00.
Whilst for some, it was a question of habit, for others it was because they had practically no customers coming in between those hours and it was not cost-effective to stay open – a question of their clientèle's habits rather than their own.
Many people enjoy the convenience of being able to shop until 20.30 or go to the supermarket until 21.00 or 22.00, but if an uninterrupted working day with a short lunch break became the norm, it is likely only large chains would be able to carry on offering customers these late hours; they would have the budget needed to employ enough staff to cover all shifts within this period, but small, family-run businesses would be less likely to have the finances to take on additional workers.
These would have to close early in the evening in order to stay open in the middle of the day, since in Spain, staff cannot legally work more than eight hours daily unless they are paid overtime, and it is against the law to work more than 48 hours a week - in accordance with the European Union's Working Time Directive – except in those professions where employees have the choice to waive this right if they wish to.
Arguably, opening longer hours – not closing until the typical 20.30 but continuing to trade all lunchtime, too – might mean more customers and more sales, which would cover the wages of extra staff and thus create more employment.
But this is a huge gamble, especially if customers' own pre-programmed shopping timetables do not change in the short term, and no firm wants to give someone a job if there's a risk they might have to make them redundant soon after they start.
Finally, and conversely, the word 'siesta' has passed into everyday speak outside of Spain, and is in fact practised all over the world – on days off, or among the retired population or those who work very late – but is never remarked upon unless it happens in Spain, as it does not normally have a specific terminology in other languages.
If you don't believe us, listen out for snoring coming from some corner of the lounge on Christmas Day this year once you've all stuffed yourself silly with turkey, trimmings and pudding.
And at this time of year, what else are you going to be doing on the beach, if not taking a siesta in the sun?
Related Topics
ONE word which is always instantly associated with Spain – and which even people who do not speak Spanish understand – is 'siesta', and many nationalities, including people from Spain itself, have often questioned why this is the case; how is it that this seems to be the only country where the inhabitants take a siesta?
“Very few stereotypes linked to our culture have stood the test of time the way the siesta has,” says the Spanish Sleep Society (SES).
But it is not just a 'Spain' thing; siestas are part of the tradition wherever the Roman Empire was present, even if few people practise it – and, in fact, only a tiny minority of Spanish people do so.
“The Romans stopped for lunch and to rest in the sixth hour of the day,” explains Juan José Ortega of the SES.
“And if we take into account that there are approximately 12 hours of daylight, give or take and depending upon where you are in the world, then in Spain, the sixth hour would be around 13.00 in the winter and about 15.00 in summer.”
The Romans called this time of the day the sexta, or 'sixth', which when Italian as a language developed from Latin, morphed into sesta.
Although 'sixth' in the Spanish language, in the feminine – since 'hour' or hora is a feminine noun – is sexta (in the masculine, it would be sexto), the word for the lunchtime nap is a Spanish variation of sesta.
Given that in the majority of cultures where a person works a full day, they take a break in the middle of it, it could be argued that the sexta is alive and well worldwide, even if it does not involve sleep; and it seems the Romans are responsible for instilling this working-hour structure into 21st-century society.
Sandwiches for lunch is a very modern concept
The Romans' largest meal of the day was at lunchtime, and its being moved to the evening, as is the case in most of Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries at least, is a fairly modern invention; as recently as World War II or even the 1960s, most northern Europeans, including the British, would be having their cooked meal at lunchtime.
Things changed as people started needing to commute longer distances for work in most countries, as they did not have time to go home for a cooked lunch; to a certain extent, this is catching on in Spain, mainly in big cities where it takes too long to get home and back and where opening hours for offices and shops tend to be longer, frequently all day, meaning midday breaks are taken in shifts and cannot afford to be more than an hour or two for this reason.
In these parts, workers are more likely to take a meal in a tupperware and heat it up in the office microwave, or nip into a café – hence the cut-price menú del día tradition, aimed at providing affordable lunches for the workforce - but will probably not eat a great deal as they need to be back on duty fairly quickly.
And it is large meals which are more likely to cause the urge for a kip, as the body has to work harder to digest them, meaning blood flows away from other organs into the stomach, less oxygen is used by the brain – that is, the parts of the brain governing anything other than digestion – and a feeling of stupor occurs; not really compatible with being on form at work.
For this reason, people with low blood pressure are more likely to feel tired, or even need to sleep, after eating even small amounts; where this is severe, it is a condition known as 'post-prandial hypotension'.
Why lunchtime cooked meals are still a 'thing' in Spain
Spain's micro-economy was traditionally based upon agriculture, with over a third of the workforce, until relatively recently, in farming; even towards the start of this century, the construction industry was one of the biggest employers nationwide; in other words, outdoor manual work.
Even at temperatures that would make you feel cold sitting in a pavement café, manual work gets you sweaty, so it starts to get too hot to work over the middle part of the day quite early in the year and continues to be until quite late in it.
Logically, this means that during much of Spain's history, from the Roman Empire until around 40 or 50 years ago and, to a large extent, even until about 15 or 20 years ago, the bulk of the workforce could not safely or comfortably do much for several hours in the middle of the day, but once the temperature dropped in the early evening, they could make up for lost time.
This trend passed to offices and shops, especially in the days when air-conditioning was still a luxury, rather than a necessity, for most businesses.
The end result is that Spain's typical working day ends late in the evening – depending upon industry, company or type of work, 'office' hours range from a start time of around 08.00 to 10.00, but then clocking-off time is anything from 19.00 to 22.00.
As this is a long chunk of the day away from home, a quick nap after lunch helps recharge your batteries before you go back to work for the second shift of the day.
In bigger towns and cities, and in tourist-heavy areas, the midday shutdown might only be from 14.00 to 16.00, if at all, but in smaller towns, it can be from 13.00 to 17.30, whether or not there is any practical need to do so.
Is it necessary?
For some time now, various economists, health experts, sociologists and politicians have been calling for a more northern European-style work schedule, since not returning home until night-time makes the work-life balance extremely difficult, especially for families, and even with an extended break in the middle of the day, it is tiring for employees to be starting work at around 09.00 and not finishing until 20.30.
These experts argue that, except for manual work, the fact that offices and shops are air-conditioned nowadays means there is no practical need to stop in the middle of the day, and that productivity may well increase dramatically if concentrated into a shorter period, with shorter breaks, and a larger chunk of the afternoon and evening to rest and play.
As it is, many public sector professions, as well as those in the financial industry such as high-street banks, tend to be on duty from approximately 08.00 until 14.00 or 15.30, with just a half-hour late-morning 'elevenses' break, and then the rest of the day is their own.
This, of course, is also conducive to taking a siesta; in the same way that most northern Europeans working standard office hours start cooking their evening meal once they get home at 18.00 or 19.00, Spaniards in banks and the public sector will typically cook their main meal of the day when they get home at around 15.00 or 16.00, then might have a doze to 'let it go down'.
Dieticians have long frowned upon Spain's habit of eating at 21.00 or 22.00 in the evening – which is, naturally, unavoidable for those who finish at the standard 20.30 – but this meal is normally much lighter; those same dieticians strongly praise the tradition of eating the biggest of the two at lunchtime.
But in the same way as people in most other countries do not practise the siesta, it is in fact quite rare in Spain.
Only at weekends, or if you're retired
Despite pre-conceived ideas about how Spaniards work their way through a five-course meal with a bottle of wine before sleeping for the rest of the afternoon, the siesta is normally only around 20-30 minutes at most; more than that, and your body slides into the full sleep-wake cycle, each of which lasts around 45 minutes, and once you're into it, it's harder to rouse yourself.
Also, dropping into the land of nod for several hours in the middle of the day can lead to insomnia at night, the SES warns.
Anecdotal evidence shows it is mostly the retired population which takes a quick nap after lunch, as they do not have to worry about getting back to work if it overruns, and that these days, few bother, especially those who cannot as they are commuters for whom it is not practical to get home for their midday meal.
A small number still say they take a post-lunch nap whenever they can, though, even if this is only at weekends.
Centre-right political party Ciudadanos' former leader at national level, Albert Rivera, was always a strong advocate for finishing the working day no later than 18.00 and cutting lunchtime to between 40 minutes and one hour; and although this idea gathered widespread support, an equal percentage of the population was dead against it.
It would mean a complete change in habits and routine – in the same way as northern Europeans being 'forced' to eat their main meal at lunchtime and work later would struggle to adjust, those who are used to a longer lunch break, night-time clock-off and cooked meal at 15.00 could find it hard to adapt.
School hours are already changing
This said, some parts of Spain have changed the school hours to give families more of a choice, and to help create a better work-life balance for parents.
Traditionally, primary school hours have been from 09.00 to noon and then 14.00 to 17.00, meaning canteens can cater for children in two shifts and they get time to play as well as to eat, and parents who prefer, are able, or want to save school lunch money, can pick their children up and feed them at home.
But it is not practical when your child stops for lunch whilst you are still in the office for another two hours, goes back to school just as you are stopping for lunch, and then finishes school right when you are returning to the office for another three-and-a-half hours.
In the Comunidad Valenciana, school hours were put to the vote and the vast majority of PTAs opted for an uninterrupted 09.00-14.00 classroom day, with a couple of short breaks; those centres which operate them also run after-school classes, fun activities or academic reinforcement sessions, until around 18.00 free of charge, then fee-paying ones until 20.00 or even later, to help out parents who could not provide childcare all afternoon due to their own working hours.
Most teachers in schools operating this new timetable said their pupils' performance improved dramatically and they were less tired, and had fewer concentration problems.
Covid forces adaptation
Whilst it is often argued that the long lunch break and siesta are a 'Spanish tradition', they are more a habit than part of a custom or culture, and it is just as likely that future generations will adapt to a light lunch and early finish in the same way other nations have done since practical considerations, like having to travel a longer distance to get to work, forced them to alter their routine.
The pandemic and opening restrictions thrust similar changes on Spain – depending upon region, shops and bars were often ordered to close as early as 18.00, and office staff to work from home, so a structural change in the national timetable has already had a dress rehearsal.
This said, in smaller towns in particular, shops which closed for the night at 18.00 still tended to shut between 14.00 and 16.00.
Whilst for some, it was a question of habit, for others it was because they had practically no customers coming in between those hours and it was not cost-effective to stay open – a question of their clientèle's habits rather than their own.
Many people enjoy the convenience of being able to shop until 20.30 or go to the supermarket until 21.00 or 22.00, but if an uninterrupted working day with a short lunch break became the norm, it is likely only large chains would be able to carry on offering customers these late hours; they would have the budget needed to employ enough staff to cover all shifts within this period, but small, family-run businesses would be less likely to have the finances to take on additional workers.
These would have to close early in the evening in order to stay open in the middle of the day, since in Spain, staff cannot legally work more than eight hours daily unless they are paid overtime, and it is against the law to work more than 48 hours a week - in accordance with the European Union's Working Time Directive – except in those professions where employees have the choice to waive this right if they wish to.
Arguably, opening longer hours – not closing until the typical 20.30 but continuing to trade all lunchtime, too – might mean more customers and more sales, which would cover the wages of extra staff and thus create more employment.
But this is a huge gamble, especially if customers' own pre-programmed shopping timetables do not change in the short term, and no firm wants to give someone a job if there's a risk they might have to make them redundant soon after they start.
Finally, and conversely, the word 'siesta' has passed into everyday speak outside of Spain, and is in fact practised all over the world – on days off, or among the retired population or those who work very late – but is never remarked upon unless it happens in Spain, as it does not normally have a specific terminology in other languages.
If you don't believe us, listen out for snoring coming from some corner of the lounge on Christmas Day this year once you've all stuffed yourself silly with turkey, trimmings and pudding.
And at this time of year, what else are you going to be doing on the beach, if not taking a siesta in the sun?
Related Topics
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