
Should Your Employees Take Naps? - tbanks
http://www.inc.com/articles/201108/sleeping-on-the-job-should-your-employees-take-naps.html
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badclient
I just started my first FT job as the first IT guy. It's the first 9-5 job for
me and honestly I feel very sleepy around 1pm. I I've been going to the
washroom to take a quick nap. It's a very specific type of nap where at the
end, I feel a moment of my body shaking after which point I'm completely
awake. I hold my phone loosely such that it drops soon as I have that moment
and boom I'm awake, fresh and back at work.

At some point I'll tell my boss and I'm pretty sure he won't have a problem
with it. I just don't want to be the guy who started napping in week 1.

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robflynn
We napped at my old DoD contracting gig.

They encouraged us to take a half hour nap if we were feeling sluggish/brain-
tired as they knew that half hour of rest would buy a lot more development
time than having the developers try to push through the last four or five
hours of the day with a groggy brain.

I'm the type that ends up more tired after a nap, so I'd often leave the
office if I had a difficult problem and just take a nice half hour walk. I'd
usually come back with a fresh mind and a solution to the problem.

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pavel_lishin
I'm the same type if I sleep in a bed - but a nap in a slightly uncomfortable
position that keeps me from falling into a deep sleep does wonders. This
results me in taking naps on the living room floor and feeling great and the
girlfriend yelling at me about it, and taking naps in bed with her and waking
up really tired and me yelling at her about it :P

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robflynn
Your story gave me a good chuckle. My girlfriend and I both have different
types of epilepsy so our mornings frequently consist of: "You punched me in
the face!" "No! You punched ME in the face!"

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thadeus_venture
Am I the only person who thinks this is a stupid question to ask? Either you
are talking about a huge corp where you have employees that you can't trust to
be honest about the amount of time they dedicate to the company, or a smaller
company where if you can't trust your employees, you hired the wrong ones and
just need to let them go. No naps in the former case and sleep whenever the
hell you feel like it in the latter.

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fharper1961
For those who feel groggy after a "nap" I think there's a misunderstanding.

In this context taking a nap means: closing your eyes, relaxing your
brain/whole body, and trying to empty your mind of all the thoughts that are
usually racing around in there.

Most often you don't fall asleep in the first 15/20 minutes; and if you do it
won't be a deep sleep that makes you feel groggy.

Practical tip: I use a timer App to make sure I know when to "wake up".

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mun2mun
I am following this tip [http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/08/from-the-tips-
box-coffe...](http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/08/from-the-tips-box-coffee-
spoon-naps-grocery-shopping-with-access/) . There was a discussion about it in
HN, could not find it.

~~~
swombat
I wrote an article about it too (which was actually featured on LifeHacker):

<http://danieltenner.com/posts/0017-how-to-nap.html>

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heelhook
When I sleep a bit during the day I wake up feeling more tired than I was
before. If I do sleep my productivity goes way down, I do find I'm much more
productive when I go play racketball or something like that for a while. Am I
the only one like that?

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SoftwareMaven
For me, it is 15 minutes or two hours. If I drop in the middle, I might as
well be two hours. But 15 minutes can make a HUGE difference.

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marcinw
That's the trick. I find having a coffee and then closing my eyes for 15
minutes leaves me more relaxed yet full of so much more energy than before to
take me through the rest of the day.

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kabdib
I nap at work, on the floor under my desk. We're in CubeLand. I simply told
the intern who sat across from me this summer "If you see me on the floor in
the early afternoon, I'm not dead."

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msluyter
I used to get terribly sleepy in the afternoons; sometimes I'd go out to my
car and take a 15 minute nap, even in the brutal Texas summer. Then I started
taking vitamin D and went on a paleo diet, and now I almost never get tired in
the afternoons. Nada. It's a great relief to not always be fighting to stay
awake.

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ljf
Same, gone slowcarb, don't eat bread even on weekends, take a vit supplement,
and no longer do I totally crash about 2 or 3, and feel the need for a Mars
bar. Now waking a bit earlier and feel alert until the evening.

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losvedir
What's odd to me is that while napping will improve my energy level _if I'm
tired_ , I'm only inconsistently tired.

I would love to figure out what variables contribute to me becoming tired in
the afternoon. I'd rather not get tired at all, then take a 20 minute nap to
get refreshed.

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mattm
Lol, not everything in life can be hacked. Many people, including me, believe
that humans are naturally bi-phasic sleepers requiring a short nap in the
afternoon around 2pm.

To me, this is like asking to figure out the variables of why we need sleep at
all so you can just go without sleeping.

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danielharan
Encouraged employees and my co-founder to use the futon, and did so myself
several times.

There's solid research to show this works - and if you try it, you'll see what
a difference it makes. The only reason it's not OK is because of some stupid
macho attitude to work and sleep.

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giardini
If I feel myself dipping then I put on earplugs, cover my eyes and take a nap.
I awaken in 20 minutes like clockwork and am good the rest of the day.

I usually get sleepy around 1:45. If I don't get a good night's sleep, then I
might have two episodes like this. The nap is the cure.

FWIW Winston Churchill was a great proponent of napping:
[http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/02/opinion/l-churchill-
unders...](http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/02/opinion/l-churchill-understood-
afternoon-naps-838589.html)

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mikeleeorg
I'm not sure if there's a direct correlation with age or not, but I noticed
that when I hit my 30s, I started getting tired around 3pm. It's like
clockwork. 3pm rolls around and my eyelids start feeling heavy.

I don't usually take a nap however, but the few times I did, admittedly, I
felt reinvigorated.

But before my 30s and this odd 3pm sleep clock, taking a nap didn't
reinvigorate me at all. Instead, I would wake up even more tired than before.
Go figure.

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scelerat
I am so much more refreshed and clear-headed after a 20 minute mid-afternoon
nap than after drinking any amount of caffeine.

However nap or no, just having a regular schedule and 8 hours of sleep a night
makes either remedy less necessary.

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oldpond
Absolutely! Do you have a happy, productive workplace, or are you running a
sweatshop? It's all part of the equation. Who naps, how often do they nap,
when do they nap, all these things are signals that tell you what's going on
in your team. In Europe they have the phrase "soup coma". It's what happens
after lunch when the blood sugar level rises and the insulin kicks in and
shuts off the brain. Expect it, and work with it, as the company in that
article did.

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March_Hare
I worked as an intern over the summer at a small startup and had an hour long
lunch break. While the other interns would eat out and be gone for an entire
time, I would eat the lunch I brought and take a 30-40 minute nap each day. I
slept at my desk, right in front of my boss.

I was away from work for an hour, like everyone else, only I would be much
more productive after the lunch hour. My boss was amused by my behavior.

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Zigurd
A nap after lunch seems to be common in Chinese companies. In both big
consultancies, and small entrepreneurial companies, i have seem people put
their head down and take a brief nap at their desk. I have read that some
companies have a formal policy encouraging this, but it seems widespread
anyway.

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lem72
I don't know about you guys, but I have been napping at work before it was
cool!

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xist
I wish i knew how to take a 30 minute nap! I just can't seem to, so i end up
having to power up on caffeine.... not the same

~~~
jemfinch
Try powering up on caffeine and then immediately taking a nap. The caffeine
takes a few minutes to kick in, and when you wake you'll feel the combined
effect of a short nap and the caffeine.

I recall reading about a study which showed that this method is quite
effective, but I don't have a link handy.

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leviathan
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap#The_caffeine_nap>

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mayoff
The suit is back!

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st3fan
Yes.

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cowkingdeluxe
I don't care if my employees take naps, just get shit done.

