The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 6 letter word COFFEE BREAKS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
C
O
F
F
E
E
B
R
E
A
K
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "these short times of refreshment" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case these short times of refreshment = coffee breaks.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.