By Tom DeSchriver

I used to nap at work. A lot.

From late 1997 to 2007 were my prime nap years.

It all had to do with working nights and having two young children.

My wife worked days (Monday-Friday) and I worked nights. We decided that we would watch the kids and they would not go to day care.

When we made this decision, I didn’t realize that our son would be an early riser as a youngster.

About 6:30 a.m., I’d get the Adam poke - “Dad, get up, I’m hungry.”

By the time my work shift came around (4 p.m. back then), I was dragging. Many a night, I’d catch a few winks around 7 p.m., just enough to get me to deadline. (Side note: One of the happiest days of my life was the first time I dropped them off together at preschool. I did a jig all the way up the hill to the house.)

I had a system for my naps at work.

I’d go into the vacant conference room, lay on the floor and recharge. The secret to it was the conference room was always cold, so after 20 minutes on the ground in a cold room I’d always wake up - remember no cellphones with timers on them back then.

My nighttime colleagues knew what I was doing and where to find me, and I’m pretty sure my daytime bosses had an idea.

I justified it, and rightly so, because I always thought I’d make fewer mistakes if I wasn’t exhausted.

I bring all this up because new Twitter chieftain Elon Musk wants his employees to bring their 60-inch TVs, comfy couches and wine fridges into the office because their new home address is 1355 Market St., San Francisco.

Musk’s idea of a good night sleep for his employees is my old definition of a nap - about 20 sound minutes.

There certainly will be some employees - whether it be for money or out of necessity - who will stick with Twitter, but so far it looks like many are telling him to jump into one of his spacecrafts and head for the moon.

According to the World Bank Group, in 2020 the life expectancy of U.S. citizens was 77.28 years, which ranked 54th in the world. Japan is No. 1 at 84.62; Canada is 19th at 81.75.

There are many reasons - obesity, substance abuse and gun deaths to name just a few - for the poor showing by the U.S., but I also believe one big cause is too many of us work ourselves to death.

For some, I’m thinking of farmers and small business owners, it’s almost unavoidable. To make a livelihood in those endeavors is not the same as working for a publicly traded company.

Musk can run his business anyway he wants.

Let’s just hope for American workers who see a job as part of a lifestyle, and not all of it, his management style takes a nose-dive like a tweedy bird with a broken wing.