Naps at work?

[sao123]

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/07134/785430-28.stm

The daily doze: More companies allowing employees to take on-the-job naps
Monday, May 14, 2007

By Teresa M. McAleavy, The (Hackensack, N.J.) Record

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- For Mike Vago, the only thing missing was the milk and cookies.


Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette
Click illustration for larger image.



It's not that the Jersey City, N.J., resident didn't appreciate what his boss was offering. It's more that the 31-year-old art coordinator for Workman Publishing Co. couldn't help but recall the midday routine of his preschool days as he picked up his yoga mat and headed for the Manhattan company's nap area for a snooze.

"I found myself feeling a little guilt because, hey, I just napped at work," said Mr. Vago, whose 1-year-old son tends to keep him up at night. "So I really got right back to work."

Because of the costs associated with energy lulls that many 9-to-5ers experience in the afternoon, some employers are embracing the idea Workman is testing: letting workers nap at work. An article in the January issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine says fatigued workers cost employers $136.4 billion each year in health-related lost productive time.

It's at least part of the reason companies such as British Airways, Nike Inc. and Pizza Hut International allow their workers nap breaks and find productivity increased as a result. A NASA study found that a short nap can boost workers' output by as much as 34 percent.

At Workman, a decision was made to test the veracity of one of its titles, "Take a Nap! Change Your Life," by Harvard University-trained psychologist and sleep researcher Sara C. Mednick.

She says how and when people nap can improve their health, memory and productivity.

Workman asked volunteers to take part in a two-month napping experiment in which 20 employees slept for about 20 minutes midday throughout March -- when our circadian rhythms are in dip mode -- with another 20 doing the same in April.

Employees filled out questionnaires along the way so Ms. Mednick can assess the program and advise company owner Peter Workman on whether napping should become a sanctioned workplace activity.

Workman Editor-in-Chief Susan Bolotin says that's likely after Ms. Mednick advises the company on ways to implement the most effective napping plan for its 200 or so Manhattan-based employees.

"It gives you much more energy than coffee, and a real creative boost," said Ms. Bolotin, who also napped occasionally throughout March. "It's a matter of the culture in a company acknowledging what we already know -- that we're all sleep-deprived -- and letting people get in a nap in a way that doesn't indicate we're all sloths."

Providing office workers with a sanctioned snooze is so counterintuitive, at least in this country, that Ms. Mednick says plenty of Americans immediately balk at the idea.

"When I talk to people about napping at work, most look at me like I'm talking about smoking crack at work," she said, chuckling. "Others say they couldn't survive without a nap. It's a very polarizing idea."

Still, Ms. Mednick, a researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., said the science encourages napping.

"The health benefits are beyond the cognitive stuff, like increased memory and productivity," said Ms. Mednick. "There have been some epidemiological studies that show decreases in heart disease and stress."

The overall benefits have some countries where businesses had traditionally shut down after lunch for a midday siesta rethinking more recent efforts to stop the practice in the name of global commerce. The Spanish government, for example, pulled the plug on naps for civil servants in 2005 and is trying to end the daily doze for all workers. China, the fastest-growing major economy in the world, also is increasingly ditching the venerable nap in favor of a 9-to-5 workday model.

But France may be moving back toward implementing 40 winks at work. In January, French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand reportedly said, "Why not a nap at work? It can't be a taboo subject!" as the government announced plans to spend $9 million this year to raise awareness about the work-performance benefits of a midday snooze.

Ms. Mednick and her colleagues, most notably co-author Mark Ehrman, found that naps "can restore proficiency in a variety of critical skills" and that "certain kinds of naps can produce improvements previously observed only after a full night of sleep." A nap that involves slow-wave sleep has been shown to improve memory, while stage-2 sleep increases alertness and motor skills, and rapid-eye-movement sleep tends to inspire creativity and heighten perception.

The author also points out that sleep deprivation has very real consequences. In addition to minor accidents, it has been linked to contributing to workplace disasters such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Union Carbide chemical explosion in India and the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

America, she writes, is a "nation of the walking tired ... so much so that 51 percent of the work force reports that sleepiness on the job interferes with the volume of work they can do." Her work led to a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, and companies sometimes hire her as a consultant.

"The military is very interested in napping and fatigue countermeasures," Ms. Mednick said. "We've found that to be alert, people are trying to slog through the day with caffeine. Now we're learning the most popular drug in the world doesn't come close to the benefits of a well-timed nap."

She isn't suggesting that companies shut down for hours each day to accommodate tired workers. Ideally, a 20-minute snooze between about 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. for workers who start at about 9 a.m. is all that's required. Within about 10 minutes of waking up, Ms. Mednick says, nappers tend to feel refreshed, "alert and ready to focus without needing that extra cup of coffee or afternoon candy bar."

That's pretty much how it went for Workman's Inka Winter, of Hoboken, N.J.

"I noticed I wasn't eating as much or having a Diet Coke or coffee in the afternoon after I napped," said Ms. Winter, 34, Workman's export director.

Even though it took some practice to fall asleep each day, Ms. Winter says she quickly noticed she was more alert throughout the second part of her day.

"My afternoons were a lot more productive, and I had more energy to do chores when I got home," she said. "Sleep is the new sex: People never get enough of it."

That's a contention some newer businesses are betting on. Manhattan-based MetroNaps started making and selling sleep pods three years ago and counts Procter & Gamble Co. among its corporate customers.

Answer the pohl...

 

[effowe]

Good idea, following lunch, after the itis sets in. I tend to drag after lunchtime so why not.

 

[pontifex]

i don't know that i could even fall asleep in that short amount of time.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Nooners FTW

 

[f4phantom2500]

if ppl slept more at home they wouldn't need naps at work. if you can't come to work rested enough to work the whole day, there's probably someone out there competent enough to do your job who can.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I've taken a 20-30min nap at work 4 years during my lunch.

Now I'm to the point where I'm not sure if I get tired because my body is expecting a nap around 12-1pm or because I'm actually running low on energy.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
if ppl slept more at home they wouldn't need naps at work. if you can't come to work rested enough to work the whole day, there's probably someone out there competent enough to do your job who can.

lol.

 

[FoBoT]

naps always ROCK!

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Sleeping during lunch when I was in the Navy onboard ships was great. It made working til 3 am on an unexpected ground much easier to do, and we were more functional for the entire duration of troubleshooting....

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

How do they do it? Are they allowed to go home and nap for an hr or two? Or are there cots or beds set up at work for this?

Or are you just confusing those people with the homeless?

 

[Mellman]

a 20 min nap is worthless... it takes me that long to fall asleep...

 

[nonameo]

When I was working construction the other workers would always rag on me for napping during my lunch break.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

How do they do it? Are they allowed to go home and nap for an hr or two? Or are there cots or beds set up at work for this?

Or are you just confusing those people with the homeless?

Yeah many businesses will close 1130-2

 

[Vonkhan]

I'd use the term nappy head ho

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

Some people do that in Spain and maybe Portugal, but they're not exactly the economic powerhouses of Europe...

And I can't imagine city workers do it even in those countries...

 

[digiram]

Sometimes when I'm really tired after lunch, a 15 min nap would really help.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

Some people do that in Spain and maybe Portugal, but they're not exactly the economic powerhouses of Europe...

And I can't imagine city workers do it even in those countries...

They do this in france and italy as well. Souther America does this as well.

 

[fire400]

worked at an office, one of my co-workers who was largely in charge of IT maintenance told me...

"sometimes I see you sleep in the office. man, it does not look good."

don't take naps during work hours or during breaks. you can close your eyes for a few seconds just to catch your sanity, but don't do it frequently, it will hurt your status of living up to greater potential.

one thing for sure, you don't want anyone thinking that you're sleeping on the job, that would be a shame. work for honest pay, lousy or not, a job's a job.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

Some people do that in Spain and maybe Portugal, but they're not exactly the economic powerhouses of Europe...

And I can't imagine city workers do it even in those countries...

They do this in france and italy as well. Souther America does this as well.

Never heard of the French doing that. I've been there but never lived there - you can certainly go to the shops at lunch time.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
this is the way it is in europe and south america. big meal and nap then back to work.

Some people do that in Spain and maybe Portugal, but they're not exactly the economic powerhouses of Europe...

And I can't imagine city workers do it even in those countries...

They do this in france and italy as well. Souther America does this as well.

Never heard of the French doing that. I've been there but never lived there - you can certainly go to the shops at lunch time.

I was mistaken, france is not on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siesta

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
if ppl slept more at home they wouldn't need naps at work. if you can't come to work rested enough to work the whole day, there's probably someone out there competent enough to do your job who can.

if you had more responsibility than making sure the doors were locked in your mom's basement... you would realize why sometimes people like me only get 5-6 hours of sleep per night.

 

[gwrober]

"My afternoons were a lot more productive, and I had more energy to do chores when I got home," she said. "Sleep is the new sex: People never get enough of it."

Um, no. What if they started offering either/or at work?

 

[imported_Imp]

Waste of company time.

Then again, my company didn't give me crap to do for days straight last year. So one day, I was tired, surfed enough in my 'hidden' cubicle, so I attempted to take a snooze. Had to pop up and move the cursor on the spreadsheet everytime someone walked by. Then it was time for lunch...

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
if ppl slept more at home they wouldn't need naps at work. if you can't come to work rested enough to work the whole day, there's probably someone out there competent enough to do your job who can.

Oh, I always come to work rested enough to work the entire day. I'd just be a lot more productive if I could take a nap at around 2 PM -- I could have slept for 3 hours or 12 hours the night before, but I am *always* on the brink of falling asleep at 2 PM.