Should my Peperomia Gold houseplant be drooping?

Hi all!
I've had a Peperomia Gold since last summer and it's been doing great. It was about 14" to 16" tall (growing straight up) about a week ago but when I came home one day it was completely drooped over. It still looks fine and healthy, just not standing up like it was before. Are these plants supposed to do this when they reach a certain height? I'm worried if I should be staking it up?!
Thanks to any and all help!

What is 'drooping'? If the soil was still moist and had lost turgidity (wilted), you need to correct a root issue. If the plant was still turgid, but had just flopped over, look to poor light as the cause.

If you offer a little more info based on what I said, we/I can probably offer a few suggestions.

Al

By drooping I meant that the plant just basically layed down and looks more like a ground cover type plant. Up until a few days ago, the plant (which has about 5 stems growing) was growing upright and looked completely healthy. Then in just a matter of one or two days the entire plant just completely layed over and is now hanging down out of the pot. It still lookes completely healthy though.

At first I thought that maybe it was supposed to do this, basically grow straight upward until it couldn't withstand it's own weight and then start growing out more like a ground cover or viney type plant (sorry, my terminology is probably not the best!).

There's been no change in the amount of sunlight or water it's been given, however.
I can try and take a picture of it when I get home this evening and post it here, to see if that might help?

It would definitely help to see a picture. The fact that it drooped like that in one day suggests to me it's probably a watering issue--stems flopping due to lack of light seems like it would have happened more gradually, some of the longer stems would have started to flop first, then over time more and more would have flopped but it wouldn't be as likely to happen overnight. But pictures would help confirm.

Do you have a cat that might have stepped on/in it? What does it look like where it meets the soil?

Or a cat/dog that might have peed in it?

When I referred to a lack of light, I figured it would be taken for granted that I meant over a period of time. My bad for not being clear. If the plant has only one stem, or one stem significantly taller than the rest, it could just be a structural failure - kind of like a drinking straw bridging the span between two glasses. If you hang enough weight on the straw, its tubular and compression strength fails catastrophically (all at once). Plant stems are the same. They will build up compression cells on the side toward which the plant leans, but as the lean increases even marginally, the likelihood of catastrophic failure increases significantly. You can hold a 25 lb pipe in one hand if it's vertical, but probably not at a 45* angle - at least not for long. Vertical plants are strong because of columnar strength (you can stack 25 lbs on a drinking straw if it's vertical), but once it starts to lean, it changes the stress to tubular and compression strength - no where near as strong.

Plants that are capable of upright growth have a much lower stem diameter to ht ratio when grown in poor light, therefore they fail structurally at a much higher rate than plants grown in good light - we see it in pictures on the forums every day. The higher the % of water in stem tissues (the more succulent or non-woody), the greater the likelihood of failure.

I still think it could easily be a long term light issue - especially if the leaves are still turgid (not wilted).

Actually, the reason for failure if it's a watering issue, either too much or too little water, is also due to structural failure (if it doesn't perk up toward evening or after watering). If you try to thrust a drinking straw into a potato or apple by holding it around it's middle, it simply collapses; but hold your thumb over the top of the straw and you can thrust the straw right through either. The air pressure in the straw adds significantly to the straws columnar strength. When a plant loses turgidity from lack of water or compromised root function from too much water, it also loses compression, and can fail catastrophically in such a way that the stem is partially crushed in the failure and the plant incapable of recovering its original spatial position w/o a mechanical support or pruning off some of the weight bearing on the point of failure.

Al