What does Judaism have to say about sleep? 1b - sleeping v. napping
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai's good habits

אמרו עליו על רבן יוחנן בן זכאי מימיו לא שח שיחת חולין ולא הלך ד' אמות בלא תורה ובלא תפילין ולא קדמו אדם בבית המדרש ולא ישן בבית המדרש לא שינת קבע ולא שינת עראי

They said of Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai: In all his days he never engaged in idle conversation; and he never walked four cubits without Torah and without tefillin; and no person ever arrived at the study hall before him; and he never slept in the study hall, neither fixed sleep nor a nap.

What is dozing?

גמ׳ רבי יוסי אומר נתנמנמו יאכלו נרדמו לא יאכלו היכי דמי נתנמנם

אמר רב אשי נים ולא נים תיר ולא תיר כגון דקרי ליה ועני ולא ידע לאהדורי סברא וכי מדכרו ליה מדכר

אביי הוה יתיב קמיה דרבה חזא דקא נמנם

אמר ליה מינם קא נאים מר אמר ליה מינומי קא מנמנם ותנן נתנמנמו יאכלו נרדמו לא יאכלו:

GEMARA: [a discussion about eating the Avikomen] What are the circumstances of dozing?

Rav Ashi said: Asleep but not asleep, awake but not awake. For instance, if they call him, he will answer, but he cannot reply meaningfully. And when they later inform him he remembers it.

Abaye was sitting before Rabba, and he saw that Rabba was dozing [after eating the afikoman]

He said to him: Is the Master sleeping? Rabba replied: I am dozing. And we learned in the mishna: “If they dozed, they may eat from the Paschal lamb, but if they fell fast asleep they may not eat it.”

How long is a nap? (1)

וכמה שינת עראי תני רמי בר יחזקאל כדי הילוך מאה אמה

And how long is a brief nap? Rami bar Yeḥezkel taught: Like walking one hundred cubits.

A Talmudic cubit is between 48.16–57.30 cm so 100 cubits is 48-57 metres.

How long is a nap? (2)

אמר רב אסור לאדם לישן ביום יותר משינת הסוס וכמה שינת הסוס שיתין נשמי

אמר אביי שנתיה דמר כדרב ודרב כדרבי ודרבי כדדוד ודדוד כדסוסיא ודסוסיא שיתין נשמי

[Apropos the duration of a brief nap] Rav said: It is prohibited for a person to sleep during the day longer than the sleep of a horse. And how long is the sleep of a horse? Sixty breaths.

Abaye said: The sleep of the Master, Rabba, is like that of Rav, and that of Rav is like that of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. And that of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi is like that of King David, and that of King David is like that of a horse. And that of a horse is sixty breaths.

Sixty breaths of a horse: some say it is approximately three minutes (Rabbi Menahem Azaria of Pano.) Others hold that it is half an hour. Yet others hold that it is three hours, and still others say it is six hours. (Rashi.)

How long is a nap? (3)

אביי הוה ניים כדמעייל מפומבדיתא לבי כובי

קרי עליה רב יוסף (משלי ו, ט) עד מתי עצל תשכב מתי תקום משנתך

Abaye would sleep during the day for a period equivalent to the time it takes to enter from Pumbedita to Bei Kuvei.

Rav Yosef said of him “How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?” (Proverbs 6:9).

Rashi says that elsewhere in Talmud we learn that the distance in question is 6 parasangs. Talmudic parasangs, says Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, are either 3.84km (according to Rabbi A.H Na’eh) or 4.6km according to Rabbi A. I. Karelitz, aka the Chazon Ish).

By this calculation the distance from Pumbedita to Bei Kuvei is either 23km or 27.6km!!!

Daytime naps - what’s your excuse?

ר' אלעזר ב"ר שמעון אשכח לההוא פרהגונא דקא תפיס גנבי אמר ליה היכי יכלת להו לאו כחיותא מתילי דכתיב בו תרמוש כל חיתו יער איכא דאמרי מהאי קרא קאמר ליה (תהלים י, ט) יארב במסתר כאריה בסוכו

דלמא שקלת צדיקי ושבקת רשיעי א"ל ומאי אעביד הרמנא דמלכא הוא

אמר תא אגמרך היכי תעביד עול בארבע שעי לחנותא כי חזית איניש דקא שתי חמרא וקא נקיט כסא בידיה וקא מנמנם שאול עילויה

אי צורבא מרבנן הוא וניים אקדומי קדים לגרסיה

אי פועל הוא קדים קא עביד עבידתיה

ואי עבידתיה בליליא רדודי רדיד

ואי לא גנבא הוא ותפס

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, found a certain officer [parhagavna] who job was to arrest thieves. He said to the officer: How are you able to arrest them? Aren’t they likened to beasts, as it is written: “You make darkness and it is night, in which all the beasts of the forest creep forth” (Psalms 104:20)? Or some say he quoted: “He lies in wait in a secret place as a lion in his lair, he lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him up in his net” (Psalms 10:9).

Perhaps you apprehend the righteous and leave the wicked alone? The officer said to him: But what should I do? It is the king’s edict.

Rabbi Elazar said: Come and I will instruct you how you should do it. At the fourth hour of the day enter the tavern. When you see someone drinking wine, holding his cup in his hand, and dozing, inquire about his background.

If he is a Torah scholar and is dozing, having risen early to study.

If he is a daytime laborer, assume that he rose early and performed his work.

And if his work is at night drawing copper wires.

And if not, he is a thief - arrest him.

Night - for sleep or for study?

אמר רב יהודה לא איברי ליליא אלא לשינתא

אמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש לא איברי סיהרא אלא לגירסא

אמרי ליה לרבי זירא מחדדן שמעתך אמר להו דיממי נינהו

אמרה ליה ברתיה דרב חסדא לרב חסדא לא בעי מר מינם פורתא

אמר לה השתא אתו יומי דאריכי וקטיני ונינום טובא

אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק אנן פועלי דיממי

אנן רב אחא בר יעקב יזיף ופרע

Rav Yehuda said: Night was created only for sleep.

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: The moon was created only for Torah study.

When people said to Rabbi Zeira: Your teachings are sharp, he said : I derived them during the daytime.

Rav Ḥisda’s daughter said to her father, Rav Ḥisda: Doesn’t the Master wish to sleep a little?

He said to her: Days that are long but short will soon arrive, and we will sleep a lot.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: We are day workers

Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov would borrow and repay.

Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World by Benjamin Reiss (Basic Books 2017)

So perhaps what we have seen in the past two hundred years is a small blip in the long history of sleep. Sleep, for most of human history, was social; it was generally distributed in several chunks throughout the day and night; and its duration and patterning varied greatly depending on the season, natural lighting, the availability of resources, and other environmental cues. Only since the industrial revolution has sleep become privatized, packaged into one standard time slot, and removed from nature’s great rhythmic cycles of temperature and light. (p56)

Finding it hard to stay awake on Seder night
מתני׳ ישנו מקצתן יאכלו כולן לא יאכלו
MISHNA: If some of the participants at the seder fell asleep, thereby interrupting their meal, they may eat from the Paschal lamb when they awake. If the entire company fell asleep, they may not eat any more. If they all fall asleep, this is considered a complete interruption, and if they were to resume their meal it would be akin to eating the offering in two different places.