I was considering a cat nap. My neck hurts and a
couple aspirin combined with rest may help relieve the pain. Then in its pain influenced fog, my mind began to wander. Why
call it a "cat nap"? My own cats sleep, on average, about 25
hours per day. No sleep they get even resembles a nap. They
basically are unconscious most of the time with intermittent, short bursts of
wakefulness. I wouldn't be surprised to find one of them asleep with her face
in the food bowl. So how can a cat nap be a short term sleep? Wouldn't a cat nap be more akin to a coma?
Also, why do we say that we want to take a nap? From whom or what do we take it? It's like the man who says, delicately choosing his language, that he has to take a pee. Really? Doesn't he deposit rather than take?
How do foreigners ever understand English? Idioms are another problem, but the phrases "cat nap" and "take a nap" are just odd. My guess is that these expressions are mistakes that through repetition have become part of the lexicon--like using impact as a verb.
