Napping at the workplace - study
02-09-2010
A study held by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has found that workers on a nine-to-five job would benefit more from a nap halfway through their day. Results also showed that, the best creative ideas are produced just as we are about to ‘nod off’ and with long working hours and shrinking lunch breaks, isn’t it time companies cashed in on the creative ideas that could be gained from designating a time to sleep? 30% of the best creative ideas come in bed, compared to 11% at the desk. If companies were then to introduce short naps to fit in around work, similar to the Spanish siesta, would productivity and creativity increase?
So napping isn’t the sign of laziness many people see it as, and in fact benefits mental acuity and overall health. A company in New York in America, MetroNaps have started a service, providing sleep pods for weary workers to snooze for 20 minutes on their lunch break, gently vibrating them awake and greeting them with a lemon scented towel to refresh them before work, and a lunch if ordered. Charging just $14 dollars for this service, their service has become increasingly popular.
Most mammals sleep certain periods during the day, and only humans have consolidated all that sleep into one elongated period. Therefore, it is natural to need a nap half way through your day, especially if you didn’t get sufficient sleep the night before. But what kind of ‘napper’ are you??
Lark - If you are a lark, you will often go to sleep around 9pm and 10pm, and wake around 6am. This means you will be most likely to require a nap around 1pm-1.30pm.
Owl - An ‘owl’ would normally go to bed around midnight waking up at around 9am. They will most likely need a rest around 2.30pm – 3pm.
So with the bed more creative than the office, how long will it be before companies start to provide sleeping rooms? If this idea were to take off, there would be no reason why 9am to 5pm jobs couldn’t be adapted to 5pm to 9am jobs. This would open up an entire new avenue for productivity in the workplace. What this study found was, that if ‘snoozing’ or ‘napping’, was made common practise in the work place then responsiveness, memory and mood would be more beneficial to the working environment.
So napping isn’t the sign of laziness many people see it as, and in fact benefits mental acuity and overall health. A company in New York in America, MetroNaps have started a service, providing sleep pods for weary workers to snooze for 20 minutes on their lunch break, gently vibrating them awake and greeting them with a lemon scented towel to refresh them before work, and a lunch if ordered. Charging just $14 dollars for this service, their service has become increasingly popular.
Most mammals sleep certain periods during the day, and only humans have consolidated all that sleep into one elongated period. Therefore, it is natural to need a nap half way through your day, especially if you didn’t get sufficient sleep the night before. But what kind of ‘napper’ are you??
Lark - If you are a lark, you will often go to sleep around 9pm and 10pm, and wake around 6am. This means you will be most likely to require a nap around 1pm-1.30pm.
Owl - An ‘owl’ would normally go to bed around midnight waking up at around 9am. They will most likely need a rest around 2.30pm – 3pm.
So with the bed more creative than the office, how long will it be before companies start to provide sleeping rooms? If this idea were to take off, there would be no reason why 9am to 5pm jobs couldn’t be adapted to 5pm to 9am jobs. This would open up an entire new avenue for productivity in the workplace. What this study found was, that if ‘snoozing’ or ‘napping’, was made common practise in the work place then responsiveness, memory and mood would be more beneficial to the working environment.
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