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Is sleep the next big trend?

"You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway
measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always
do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the
day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You
will be able to accomplish more.” -Winston Churchill.


Despite the comment about daily napping by the wartime British Prime Minister, most Australian managers would probably think very negatively about sleeping on the job.

There was a time when sleeping on the job could get you fired. If you were in the military, it could get you shot.

Still today, in most organisations, there are few office activities that will upset a manager more than when an employee falls asleep at the desk.

Yet with hectic lifestyles, repetitive tasks, stuffy environments and more stress, very few employees are immune to feeling sleepy at some point during the working day.

Obviously, sleepy workers can create financial problems -- productivity along with worker health can suffer, it may also be a sign of a non-challenged, over-worked or an unmotivated workforce.

Maybe surprisingly to some people, it seems there are changes in the air.

Japanese firms have addressed the napping ‘problem.’ Many now provide a room for taking a nap. In China, the law actually guarantees a post-lunch snooze.

And in Spain -- home of the siesta -- business centres have opened up, where for a nominal fee, workers can relax and have a sleep after lunch.

In the American book, The Art of Napping at Work, the authors refer to napping at work as an idea whose time has come. Camille W. Anthony, M.Ed and William A. Anthony, Ph.D. have a great deal to say in favour of naps and how truly refreshing they can be in the middle of a workday.

In the book they say that workers are "nap ready" and often sneak a snooze anyway. Making naps official is a win-win situation for all.

"Napping secretly in the workplace is already here but napping openly with the employer's permission is a coming trend," claims one of the authors, William Anthony, a professor at Boston University.

"Napping is a natural, no-cost way to increase worker productivity. Companies can no longer keep their eyes closed to the epidemic of sleepiness on the job," he says.

In separate developments that seem also to support napping on the job, some psychology specialists are saying that research is now showing that our human minds are often most creative when we relax. The suggestion is that bosses should consider altering working habits to aid creativity.

But for a daytime nap to really be effective, workers need to be "comfortable psychologically" with snoozing at work, and know they are doing themselves and their company a favour. Proponents of the trend suggest that some top napping tips for work include:

  • Announce your nap to your colleagues
  • Use "equipment" that will make your nap pleasurable
  • Use an alarm to ensure you wake up on time
  • Find a secret spot so you will not be awakened prematurely
  • Have a napping routine.

Of course we all know that the siesta is a great Mediterranean tradition - a lazy snooze after a long lunch to sleep through the heat of the day.

Now, researchers at Flinders University say a short sleep in the mid afternoon could actually increase a worker's productivity.

Psychologist and PhD student, Amber Tietzel has completed a study of sleep effects during the day: "I found that the ultra brief naps of 30 seconds, 90 seconds and 5 minutes are really too short to have any real beneficial effect. But when I gave the participants in the study the opportunity to sleep for 20 or 30 minutes they tended to enter a deeper sleep so when they woke up they felt groggy and confused. What I found was the optimal length nap was ten minutes. The ten minute nap produced immediate benefits and they seemed to be maintained for two and a half hours."

Despite all the theory about the benefits of sleeping on the job, it is still frowned upon in most work places and the following are some classic excuses for people who have been caught sleeping while supposedly working:

  • "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."
  • "This is just a 15-minute power nap like they raved about in that time-management course you sent me to."
  • "Whew! I must have left the top off the liquid paper."
  • "Someone must have put decaf in the wrong pot."
  • "Oh, man! Come in at 6 in the morning and look what happens!"

 

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