If you're not getting enough sleep, you might want to pack your bags and head for Spain. And don't worry about being jet-lagged. In Spain, you are allowed to sleep for two or three hours during the heat of the afternoon, and businesses are closed from 2 to 5. This is the famous Spanish siesta, and the Spanish adopted the tradition as a way of coping with the intense heat. The Spanish insist that you go to sleep for a few hours every day. This allows the Spaniards to be lively and alert at 9 p.m., midnight on weekends, when dinner is traditionally served. Late nights are common in Spain, for enjoying yourself and going out late at night is part of the culture.

Yet even in Barcelona and Andalusia, workers are losing sleep as they struggle to keep up with the demands of the European economy. They're still eating at nine p.m., but the siesta is slowly disappearing. Business people work during the hours that they once spent napping. Since they often have to do business with countries such as Germany or Sweden that adhere to a different business schedule, they have no time for siesta. But while they're not working or attending to family obligations, they often sleep. According to a 1999 ABC News story, "Marketing the Siesta: Spanish Entrepreneur Keeps Tradition Alive," Spanish businessmen have begun napping in their cars the way their American counterparts do.

One businessman thinks the traditional siesta is greatly needed, and has built a thriving massage parlor franchise on that belief. People regularly doze in massage chairs at Federico Busquets' 18 establishments, and nobody bats an eyelid (pun intended.) Customers are so desperate for a nap that they pay 1,000 pesetas, equal to $7 American, for a 10-minute massage that allows them to snooze.

Busquets told ABC News in 1999 that siesta is not only a need, it's a part of the Spanish identity. "We are in Spain! This is the siesta we are talking about. Losing it would be like losing bullfights, or sangria, or paella."

A national naptime? Olé!