Good luck, right?
But here's the reality: naps are a powerful source of competitive advantage. The recent evidence is overwhelming: Naps are not just physically restorative, but also improve perceptual skills, motor skills, reaction time and alertness.
I experienced the power of naps myself when I was writing my new book, The Way We're Working Isn't Working. I wrote at home, in the mornings, in three separate, highly focused 90-minute sessions. By the time I finished the last one, I was usually exhausted -- physically, mentally, and emotionally. I ate lunch and then took a 20-to-30 minute nap on a Barcalounger chair, which I bought just for that purpose.
When I awoke, I felt incredibly rejuvenated. Where I might otherwise have dragged myself through the afternoon, I was able to focus effectively on work other than writing until 7 p.m. or so, without feeling fatigued.
When Sara Mednick, a former Harvard researcher, gave her subjects a memory challenge, she allowed half of them to take a 60-to-90 minute nap, the nappers dramatically outperformed the non-nappers. In another study, Mednick had subjects practice a visual task at four intervals over the course of a day. Those who took a 30-minute nap after the second session sustained their performance all day long. Those who didn't nap performed increasingly poorly as the day wore on.
When pilots are given a nap of just 30 minutes on long-haul flights, they experience a 16-percent decrease in their reaction time. Nonnapping pilots experience a 34-percent increase over the course of the flight.
The conclusion is inescapable: The more hours we work continuously, the greater the toll on our performance. To get a sense of how valuable it may be for you to nap, take our brief energy audit.
The best time for a nap is between 1 and 3 p.m., when the body most craves a period of sleep. The ideal length for a workplace nap is 30 minutes or less, which assures that you won't fall into the deeper stages of sleep, and awake with that loopy feeling scientists call "sleep inertia."
"A nap," argues Mathew Walker, a sleep researcher at Berkeley, "not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness, but at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap."
For all this evidence, I've yet to come across a single company that actively and enthusiastically encourages employees to nap. A growing number, including Google, provide napping pods and renewal rooms. That's a great first step, but it's scarcely the norm to use them.
Napping won't begin to take hold in companies until leaders recognize that it's not the number of hours people work that determines the value they create, but rather the energy they're capable of bringing to whatever hours they work.
If encouraging employees to take a half-hour nap means they can be two or three times as productive over the subsequent three hours -- and far more emotionally resilient -- the value is crystal clear. It's a win-win and a great investment.
The problem is that most corporate cultures remain addicted to the draining ethic of more, bigger, faster. Rest, by this paradigm, is for slackers. Until your employer sees through that myth, consider these tips to take matters into your own hands:
* Schedule a regular time for your nap -- between 1 and 3 p.m. is ideal -- to increase the likelihood that you'll take it.
* If you have your own office, create a cheeky sign for your door to set expectations others. As in: "Short nap in process to insure high afternoon productivity."
* If you work in a cubicle, see if you can find a quiet space for your nap, even if it means leaving the building and taking your nap on a park bench.
* Turn off your technology and set an alarm for 20 or 30 minutes.
* Close your eyes (obviously) but don't try too hard to fall asleep. Instead, breathe in through your nose to a count of three, and out through your mouth to a count of six. Even if you don't fall asleep, this way of breathing will insure you'll get a rejuvenating rest.
Follow Tony Schwartz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonySchwartz
Dr. Michael J. Breus: Power Napping to Win
A Chinese friend tells me that when she lived in China (fifteen years ago) her company had cots in the lunchroom. Some people took naps, others played chess or read for an hour. Everyone felt refreshed and energized for the afternoon.
There are no more cots in Chinese companies these days either! To bad - because in the long run it is beneficial for the company and the individual.
http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/
In addition, encouraging employees to leave their desks and walk o exercise during a shift will keep down medical costs and make for healthier, happier employees.
It's too bad the business status quo is so stubborn.
Clearly, the solutions to the steep challenges we face, will be met through creativity and innovation, but so many companies are just running scared and think the path to success is to pressure workers to: work harder, faster, longer. No. no. no. That is the path to exhaustion, depletion and despair. Duh.
I used to manage a guy who took a 20 "nap" after lunch every day. It was a stressful media company. When I questioned him about what he was doing, I actually think he was meditating. Good solution right?
WRONG, in that particular old-school environment, his "nap" garnered him criticism from every quarter. I encouraged the guy to move further out of sight and keep up the naps! But everytime there was a discussion about a need for more people to do more work, other bosses would point to this guy, and say if he wasn't sleeping, he could take on more duties.
Thankfully, I no longer work in that toxic place!
Take that.
I used to be a grinder, working hours on end.
As I've grown older, 48, I do better taking short rests regularly and then staying on task for intense periods of work.
It increases my productivity.