

Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps - bakbak
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/09/why_companies_should_insist_em.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist092710&referral=00202&utm_source=newsletter_weekly_hotlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hotlist092710

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nostromo
This article is especially important for places like HN where the "founders
never sleep" myth runs rampant.

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lutorm
In "The Promise of Sleep", the author talks about naps and getting tired in
the afternoon, and his conclusion is that the only reason people get tired in
the afternoon (which is when your clock-dependent alerting is at its lowest)
is because they are sleep deprived. If you are well rested and don't have
sleep debt, you should not get tired at that time.

Having consciously tried to get enough sleep over the past 2 years or so, I
believe he's right. These days, I barely notice any afternoon dip and when I
do, it's when my sleep has been disturbed for some reason.

~~~
chipsy
I think lunch can also be to blame for afternoon fatigue, depending on what
you eat.

~~~
markstansbury
After my surf-and-turf, three-martini lunches, I _do_ tend to get drowsy

~~~
Psyonic
That I can handle. It's the afternoon tryst with my secretary that leaves me
incapacitated.

~~~
mkramlich
I didn't realize we had so many VCs among HN's readership.

~~~
thwarted
Or 1960s advertising executives.

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wccrawford
So they recommend taking your own time and taking a nap to give your employer
more productivity?

I'm all for being productive on company time, but I don't sacrifice my own
time for it. And I certainly don't go so far as to hide things I do from the
company, like leaving the premises to go take a nap.

~~~
davidmurphy
I imagine there are a fair number of people out there who are "in the closet"
about being nappers -- ie, they take naps in their car during lunch break,
etc.

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maukdaddy
Disengaging in other ways are also very effective.

For example, if you're having trouble with a tough business/programming
problem, a stroll through an art museum can be very beneficial. Personally, I
like to walk along the lake (Chicago) or walk through parks and let my mind
wander.

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bcl
Am I the only one who cannot nap? If I take a nap in the middle of the day I
wake up feeling worse than when I started.

~~~
Psyonic
I'm the same. These guys say 20 minutes is the best, but in that case I think
we need to choose a better term than "nap", because I won't be asleep for
almost any of that 20 minutes. Rest, perhaps.

~~~
jselzer
I thought I was one of those people too... every time I try to nap it seems to
end up with me just lying down and trying to fall asleep for 20 minutes.
However, after moving in with my girlfriend she has confirmed that I do indeed
manage to fall totally asleep during these attempted naps.

I did some looking around and apparently earlier sleep stages can easily be
confused for being awake, especially for light sleepers. It may sound weird,
but sleep perception is a funny thing. Some people nap quite easily, yet
conclude they did not sleep at all because they never perceive themselves
falling asleep or waking up.

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davidmurphy
Power Sleep, by Cornell sleep researcher Dr. James Maas, transformed my idea
of naps. I highly recommend the book. He recommends short "power naps" to
quickly get in some rest. The key is to wake up before your body goes into a
deep sleep cycle. For me, this means approx. 15-20 minute naps when needed. It
truly is astounding how much this rejuvenates you. These naps were insanely
helpful back when I was in college.

Buy on Amazon: <http://amzn.to/bvumKg>

WorldCat (library catalog search): <http://bit.ly/c3NMpF>

I just wish naps were more accepted in the corporate world. When I have a
startup again, I'd love to have a "nap" room for employees. Google has sleep
pods: <http://www.businessinsider.com/google-sleep-pods-2010-6>

~~~
kilian
I often did this to and from work on the train, it's an amazing quick fix for
when you're feeling drowsy.

~~~
alaithea
That doesn't work for everyone. When I let myself sleep on the train, I tend
to feel like a perma-zombie when I get off. I think it has something to do
with the fact that I wake up at every stop, or stay halfway conscious so as
not to miss my stop and therefore don't have a clear delineation between being
awake and asleep (and getting off the train doesn't snap me out of it).

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COP
My dad is a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) doctor. He told me that every
hour slept before 12AM count as 2 times as effective. I tried it out for a few
month going to sleep around 8/9pm. I usually find myself waking up around 1am.
super alert and energized for several hours where I will do a lot productive
writing and creating till 5/6am. Then I'll sleep for 1 more hour. And for the
rest of the day I'm totally energized with no afternoon dip. I do think our
current sleeping patterns is a bit limiting.

Here is a TED talk that touch upon the subject as well:

<http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html>

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elbenshira
A friend and I have this running agreement that if we ever do a startup
together, we will force all employees to take a nap after lunch.

As a college student, I understand how useful naps are. Students live in short
bursts of concentration during the day (e.g. when in class), and that 30
minute nap between classes is a life saver. Heck, a lot of our conversations
involve talking about naps in its intricate details. Like many great
entrepreneurs say, the most important features and ideas will be brought up
over and over again over time. And napping is one of those great, haunting
ideas.

~~~
Psyonic
Not everyone can nap well. I can't sleep in the day. Even when really tired,
if I try, I end up half-sleeping, waking up feeling really weird with my heart
beating faster than normal. I have fallen asleep before (on a bus or
something), but basically always on accident and never when I try to.

Although I guess there are probably few enough people like me that excluding
us won't really harm you, it still seems over-the-top to require it. And yes,
I imagine you were exaggerating, but just saying.

~~~
mxavier
I find myself in the same position. I wish naps were more effective for me
because I tend to hit a slump around 2:30 or 3PM, but I find that when I nap,
I wake up feeling dehydrated, confused, and in a surprisingly bad mood.

~~~
elbenshira
It's probably because you wake up when you're in REM
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_sleep>). The key is to wake
up _before_ you hit REM. I wake up after 30 minutes because I usually will hit
REM if I nap for longer.

~~~
Psyonic
So do you just always get up after 30 minutes, even if you don't fall asleep
for 10 or 15? I find the idea of timing the wakeup difficult otherwise. I
guess WakeMate or a similar device might help.

~~~
elbenshira
It took me a while, but now one of two things happen during my naps:

1) I don't ever fall asleep. So it's mostly just resting and relaxing with my
eyes closed.

2) I fall asleep 10 minutes into the 30 minutes and wake exactly one minute
before my alarm rings. My body somehow learned to do this, probably because
the alarm sound is so painful. But I can tell that I wake up (I'm not sure who
"I" is; it's more of a subconscious thing) right before I fall into a REM
sleep.

~~~
Psyonic
Cool. I may have to give this a try.

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rubyrescue
_When pilots are given a nap of just 30 minutes on long haul flights, they
experience a 16 percent improvement in their reaction time. Nonnapping pilots
experience a 34 per cent decrease over the course of the flight._

does that sentence make sense?

~~~
carbocation
If these are both "relative to baseline" and not "relative to one another,"
then yes (except for spelling and grammatical mistakes).

Of course, as stated, not taking a nap apparently gives a greater improvement,
so presumably they didn't actually mean "decrease" and instead meant
"increase."

~~~
Psyonic
What would the baseline be? Not told whether to nap or not? I imagine that's
the same as non-napping, because most people don't nap.

~~~
carbocation
Baseline would be the test that you performed prior to the flight.

Take 100 pilots. Test them all right before flying. Instruct 50 to nap during
the flight. Instruct 50 not to. Compare each individual's response time after
the flight to their response time before the flight. Aggregate by group.
Perform a t-test (or another appropriate test) asking whether or not the
difference (after minus before) is the same in both groups, or if one group
performs better.

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TamDenholm
Can anyone else here not nap? I've never in my life been able to nap, despite
trying. I only ever fall asleep when I'm very very tired and then I have a
long deep sleep.

~~~
Psyonic
Same. I can't on purpose. Occasionally on a bus or train I have, but I can't
seem to induce that state intentionally.

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sprout
Okay, so do any of these studies control for the number of hours the students
- sorry, I mean subjects in the trial - sleep each night? Without looking at
the data, I'd hazard a guess that all these studies show is that if you don't
get at least 7 hours of sleep or so, you're less productive.

And I'd further suggest that this is only particularly relevant to pilots,
where the burst of energy you get following a nap might be worthwhile, since
you don't need sustained energy to pilot, only enough to manage the difficult
landings and takeoffs.

For programmers, you need sustained concentration, so you need a solid seven
hours of sleep per night (and from what I've read, especially for those under
25, 9 hours is a much better figure, and it will significantly improve your
capacity to learn.)

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guynamedloren
"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."

This stood out to me as the most important statement in the article. The
problem is that a large chunk our society is based upon measurable quantities,
whether they make sense or not (see: 40 hour work weeks, GPA, etc).
Unfortunately, human potential energy is not quantifiable (yet).

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mattm
>> 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 pm or so, without feeling fatigued.

I actually work on a very similar system except it is 2 3x45 minute sessions
instead of 3 90-minute sessions. Like the author though, I find I can't do
anymore programming after 4.5 hours of productive work but after taking a nap
, I have lots of energy to do other activities that interest me.

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panthera
Here's a very simple algorithm to find your optimal napping time.

1\. Buy a device from myzeo.com

2\. Go to sleep at night, and review the times that you entered deep sleep

3\. Take a nap during the day wearing the zeo, then figure out the time you
enter deep sleep. That might be N minutes since you turned the device on.

4\. Then, nap for a little less than N minutes.

If you determine that you start going into deep sleep at 30 minutes in #3,
then you should set your alarm for 26-28 minutes. You'll feel refreshed.

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TGJ
I suppose it would get interesting as far as scheduled hours are concerned.
Does the 30 min nap have to occur in your lunch our? Is there an extended 30
min attached to the 1 hour lunch? Would that mean that companies would work 30
min less a day or would the work day have to be 30 min longer? Would companies
realize that the efficiency improvement would offset a need to have a longer
day since people are doing more in 7 and 1/2 hours as opposed to the non-nap 8
hour?

~~~
brlewis
If a company thinks it's meaningful to measure the number of hours you're
awake at your desk, naps won't happen anyway.

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abalashov
Unfortunately for me, if I fall asleep in the middle of the day, I am going to
sleep for 2-3 hours, sometimes longer. Sleeping for less than that is
pointless; it can sometimes take me at least 15-20 minutes to get to sleep.
And, I'm not sleep-deprived; I get plenty of rest these days, having already
burned my body out on all-nighters coding in elementary, middle and high
school. I can't do it anymore.

~~~
rsaarelm
The refreshing effect even from a very short period of sleep (think nodding
off at a lecture) can be surprisingly strong. Try going for a nap and setting
an alarm clock to go off after 20 minutes, without any expectation to
necessarily fall asleep in the time. I often find that 20 minute daytime naps
help a lot even if it seems to take more than 10 minutes for me to start
nodding off.

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znt
Napping is the crucial key for me while handling tough programming problems.
Before taking a nap, I try to understand the boundaries and the parameters of
the problem and try to visualize the solution I want to arrive. Then I take a
nap (20 - 30 mins). When I wake up 90% of the time I have the solution in my
head.

I think any startup which encourages its employees to take a nap is at great
advantage.

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bherms
In psychology class we studied various effects on learning (eg: environment,
state of mind, etc). One thing that I remember learning was that sleep caused
the brain to retain information better, so they recommended napping after
studying and other similar things. If you're in a job where you're learning
new things often, a nap could also help you learn more quickly and retain the
lessons long-term.

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borneogamer
I'd like to attest to the power of naps myself. There were several times when
I was assigned an application that had a function with extremely broken code
and trying to fix it in frustration. After a meal and a nap, an elegant
solution present itself to me almost always, which requires less coding and
easier to implement.

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dmc320
I agree with this article, but this seems like a pipe dream in the current
corporate environment. In my experience, most corporations demand long periods
of work with very few breaks, let alone 60 to 90 minute napping periods.

Let's hope studies like this can spark a discussion within mainstream
corporate culture.

~~~
jrockway
I don't think this corporate culture is "mainstream" in the programming world.
I mean, yes, there are some backwards workplaces where they have cameras to
make sure you are working Really Hard 24/7 (or 8/5, anyway), but this is not
the norm. The norm is being able to disappear for hours without anyone even
noticing.

Outside of creative fields like programming, I imagine it's a little bit more
skewed towards "working hard", but that mostly amounts to showing up to
meetings. If you don't have a meeting scheduled, nobody will notice.

(Personal experience: my work-from-home job with a company of 5 was much
stricter than my work-in-the-office job at the 5th biggest company in the US.
It's not "corporate culture", it's neurotic manager culture.)

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kilian
Ever since I read "Brain Rules" by John Medina (which advocates taking an
afternoon nap) about a year ago I've been wanting to 'implement' it, but I
have failed to do so yet. 3PM is just not a convenient time for a nap at all.

Is there anyone that does take naps in the afternoon?

~~~
etal
It's easier for students. When I'm on that schedule, I wake up around 7 a.m.
(naturally), nap around 4:30 or 5 p.m., and go to bed around 1 a.m. It's
maintainable when I don't have regular late-afternoon meetings, and very
helpful during "death march"-type projects because it feels like having two
days in one.

As a side effect, dinner shifts later in the day. This is noticeable in places
where siestas are common, like Spain -- early breakfast, nothing happening in
the mid-afternoon, and then everyone emerges for dinner and night life around
8-10 p.m.

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askar_yu
I work at an international Chinese company and what surprised me first was
that almost all of our Chinese engineers take nap after lunch (even the ones
who come for temporary business trip) I have an impression that taking naps is
heavily practiced in Chinese corporate culture...

~~~
housel
When I worked in Taiwan the office lights were normally turned off for 20-30
minutes after lunch while colleagues napped. I personally was seldom able to
manage a nap, however.

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dlokshin
Anyone know if taking these short naps during the day affect one's ability to
fall asleep at night?

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yewweitan
Totally agree. This post by daniel tanner
<http://danieltenner.com/posts/0017-how-to-nap.html> should be a practical
complement to this.

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c-oreills
Reading this has made me sleepy!

I'm interested in this concept of mid-day rejuvenation. However, which works
better, naps or meditation? Or does each serve its own purpose?

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JoeAltmaier
Marginal result - taking an hour out of an 8-hour day is 12.5% drop right
there. Hard to make that up in the remaining time, with a small percentage
increase in productivity.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Don't get me wrong - I'd love an excuse for a nap! But its guaranteed to burn
the hours involved, for a marginal increase in productivity.

~~~
antareus
Heaven forbid people be more productive when they could be clocking exactly
eight hours like good little automatons.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Read the article again - suggesting its those 8-hour companies that should
institute naps.

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lelele
Asking your employees to waste time in commuting, and then promoting a nap "to
improve productivity"? Looks shortsighted to me.

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lotusleaf1987
I'm confused how this was submitted because I submitted the _exact_ same
article five days ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1714358>

Regardless, I think space would be the biggest issue. I don't think most
companies could afford to have sleeping pods like Google.

~~~
lsc
really? I mean, maybe not one for every person, but eh, one for ever five or
ten should be quite doable (and I bet you don't have that many simultaneous
naps.) I mean, even the prgmr.com office has a cot, and you don't get much
more poor than us.

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buzzblog
20 to 30 minutes doesn't seem sufficient to make a big difference, especially
if you're not able to drop right off. And exactly _where_ is your typical
office worker supposed to take this nap?

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chris123
Power naps are great... and have been for eons. Yet Harvard has just figured
it out? LOL. Masters of the obvious.

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badmash69
Thank you but no !!

Let me get this straight : you want to force your views and fads upon my
lifestyle and make it a formal policy, all the while increasing my working
hours because now I have to take a nap during working hours and I still have
to put in my 8 hours? And I get no compensation for the increased hours. No
Thanks !!1

