Following the increasing perks at work such as nursing rooms, gyms, and children’s rooms, Nike employees today also have quiet rooms for napping. Google, a pioneer of modern times in providing employee benefits, has a series of futuristic sleeping pods scattered throughout its Mountain View campus.
Prepared by: Vanja Figenwald
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From Thomas Edison and Winston Churchill to Bill Clinton and George Costanza, napping at work has had its champions, and for good reason. Ever since sleep expert David Dinges helped create the modern science of sleep in the early 80s at the University of Pennsylvania, it has been proven that a short period of sleep helps strengthen attention, memory, motor skills, decision-making, and improves mood, while reducing stress, inattentiveness, and even heart disease. According to a recent study by Stanford University, Americans sleep an average of seven hours a night, and 20 percent feel sleepy during the day, which is why many companies have changed their stance on employee napping to save billions lost due to decreased productivity. Following the increasing perks at work such as nursing rooms, gyms, and children’s rooms, Nike employees today also have quiet rooms for napping that can also be used for ‘meditation’. Google, on the other hand, a pioneer of modern times in providing employee benefits, has a series of futuristic sleeping pods scattered throughout its Mountain View campus.
Jawa, a small mobile technology company from Scottsdale, Arizona, has two relaxation rooms: one with such a pod and another with an old-fashioned couch, very popular among its long-working developers. Many airlines, including Continental and British Airways, allow pilots to sleep during long international flights while their colleagues manage the plane (on domestic routes in America, this practice is prohibited due to rules from the Federal Aviation Administration). Other companies, like Ben & Jerry’s, do not have an official policy, but unofficially allow the use of relaxation and exercise rooms where one can take a short nap without being judged. – If your employees are working 16 hours a day, you definitely want to give them the opportunity for a refreshing nap – says Melissa Gierginger, a spokesperson for Jawa.
For quality short sleep
Napping: what to do and what not to do
1. Find the time and space: to reap the benefits of an afternoon nap, you need from 20 minutes to half an hour. The best time is early afternoon when your body is tired, so consider reserving the second half of your lunch for napping. If your employer does not have a sleeping room, a yoga mat is certainly better than a restroom, although the best option is probably a parked car.
2. Create the right atmosphere: our brain produces more melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, in the dark, so close the blinds, turn off the lights, and consider using an eye mask. The temperature should be slightly higher, and if you must sleep in an upright position, use a travel pillow to avoid the notorious head bobbing. Of course, don’t forget to turn off your phone.
3. Be cautious with chemicals: avoid consuming caffeine a few hours before sleeping, as well as nicotine, diet pills, and antidepressants. Although alcohol is known to facilitate sleep, it disrupts sleep and should be avoided. Refined sugars and carbonated drinks may keep you awake, but meat, dairy products, and nuts contain tryptophan, which the body breaks down into melatonin.
Featured sleeping rooms
Similarly, some companies have decided to highlight their solutions for daytime sleeping. Yelo, a sleep wellness center in the heart of Manhattan, provides its services to Hearst, NewsWeek, and Time Warner. It offers sleep in a pod-like room where clients can combine aromatherapy, sound, and lighting. Such a 20-minute ‘nap’ costs $15. The price of additional pleasure, which includes a 10-minute soothing foot massage, is $40.
– In recent years, much attention has been paid to exercise and nutrition, but sleep is actually the most important element of productivity – explains Christopher Lindholst, co-founder of MetroNaps, a company that sells the EnergyPod sleeping chair to companies like Google, P&G, and Cisco Systems. The chair, which looks like Pacman with a very long tongue, boasts an ergonomic shape and an integrated music system with a headphone jack.
– The EnergyPod is designed for privacy, but it is placed in public spaces to create an atmosphere of awareness and acceptance – adds Lindholst.
Renting the powerful chair costs $795 a month.
– Short naps refresh much more than people think – says Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England.
– A short afternoon nap will prevent drowsiness without disrupting nighttime sleep. However, it should be noted that it is not good to rely too much on daytime sleep as a substitute for lost sleep.
– From time to time, it will help compensate for lost sleep, but how much it can truly serve as a substitute is a big question – claims Roger Rosa, a senior scientist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
– If you lost an hour during nighttime sleep, an afternoon nap is probably the best solution, but if you were awake all night, it can cause a hangover.
