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Take Naps at Work
- cmurf 9y agoGood luck with that. No really, I like the idea, and I wish nappers luck. They're gonna need it.
- LoSboccacc 9y agoThere's an hour lunch break around all europe. Most napper could fit a 20min rest there without being reprimanded.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoNot really. Lots of places here (Norway) use just 30 minutes for lunch.
- tedmiston 9y agoI have noticed that taking a brief nap, 20 minutes or so, or going for a midday walk leads to an afternoon productivity boost. It's hard to do this in an office environment though, especially if you don't have quiet space. My closest office equivalent is a walk to the coffee shop. It's not even really about the coffee (or tea), just a mental lull to recenter my mind in executive mode and reconsider what priorities are important vs being immersed deep in code.
- jclulow 9y agoSometimes just lying on a bean bag for 20 minutes, without any expectation of even light sleep, is enough to get me through the rest of the afternoon. This is even more true now that I have an 8 month old son. The alternative is sitting at my desk pretending I'm not spacing out, which is good for exactly nobody.
- albertgoeswoof 9y agoNapping at work is a great idea if you want to be more productive, learn faster and improve your cognitive ability. It's also a neat way of making your colleagues and management think you're lazy.
- jclulow 9y agoYou most definitely need better colleagues and management.
- laythea 9y agoI think the parent lives in the real world.
- __s 9y agoFirst mistake-- need to take a nap to live in the dream world
- irishasaurus 9y agoYeah that'll fix it, just get a better job! While you're at it, get paid more too.
- odammit 9y agoI'm a grandmaster napper. If you can't nap at work, go on a coffee break and take a nap in your car. People will jawdrop at your effectiveness. Ask Spain.
- noncoml 9y ago> Ask Spain And not only Spain; the majority of Mediterranean countries. They are being stereotyped as lazy though, so not sure how this is helping with your argument.
- odammit 9y agoI'm very effective at being lazy
- koolba 9y agoAre the Spanish known for their effectiveness? I'm sure I'm being stereotypical but I just known them as taking long naps and lunches. Not necessarily boosting their effectiveness or country wide GDP as a result.
- bane 9y agoFood and drink in Spain is very effective at being delicious -- some of the best in Europe. I think it depends on the industry.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- switch007 9y agoThere are a few misconceptions around Spain and their napping habits. There was a thread recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14812127 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14812127 . Three hour lunch breaks involving naps – outside of small shops – are mostly nonexistent now. Anecdotally, I worked in Spain a decade ago and I knew only one person who lived close enough to go home, eat and nap. Many of my colleagues were perpetually tired because they stayed up so late socialising.
- freehunter 9y agoI’ve never been able to nap. I’m one of the people who takes an hour to fall asleep, always have been. Even if I meditate and shut down my active mind, I can lay there for an hour with a completely blank mind, completely at peace, and completely awake. So I tend to just take 5-10 minutes during the day and do a full mediation session. It’s enough to take me out of the day briefly and send all of my stresses somewhere else, which is what the point really is about, right?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- rubicon33 9y agoI am in the same boat. I've always envied people who can "nap". It's frustrating to read articles that suggest you "take a nap for 30 minutes!" when the implication there is that it doesn't take you 30 minutes just to fall asleep. I've noticed I have a general "sleep momentum" problem. It takes me longer than average to fall asleep, and longer than average to wake up. On both ends of the cycle, I struggle. I wish there was a solution.
- pault 9y agoI'm not a physician but something that has worked shockingly well for me is 200mg of 5-HTP and 500mg of L-Tryptophan before bed. I used to have terrible insomnia (only sleeping for 2 hours some nights) and every time I take these two together I am out like a light within 30 minutes, and usually don't wake up at all until 4-6AM (I used to wake up fully at the end of every 90 minute sleep cycle and have to go through the whole process of falling asleep again). It gives you that warm fuzzy feeling (capillary dilation in the extremities) that you get just before you fall asleep. I've been taking it every night for five years now and I swear by it. YMMV of course. I've always been skeptical of supplements and I had taken tryptophan before to minor effect, but the two of them together are way beyond anything that could be blamed on placebo.
- costcopizza 9y agoCareful taking 5HTP if you're already on antidepressants, specifically SSRI's, as you could encounter Serotonin Syndrome.
- nerdponx 9y agoYet another reason not to punish your employees with an open floor plan office.
- djsumdog 9y agoI use to hate the cubical, until I was in various open floor plan jobs for six years. Open floor plans are the next circle of hell. I know this because they make you miss the cube.
- Brakenshire 9y agoCould have open plan, with a quiet room.
- the_bear 9y agoI'm interested in making it easier for people to nap at my company, but I'm having some trouble figuring out the logistics. I don't mind people taking naps, but I don't want to end up dealing with cleaning sheets, blankets, etc. Any suggestions on how a small office (~15 people) can have a napping area without taking on any additional custodial work?
- djsumdog 9y agoOne shop I was in had a quiet room with two recliners. There were blankets in there but I'd never use them. Hmm .. now I wonder if those things ever got washed. :-P But really you just need a closet or a small room with shutters. My building/shop had about 100 people and with those two recliners and a small futon, it worked out pretty well. There were never more than two people down there and there was an unspoken rules about .. well .. not speaking. Some people would go down there to meditate. You'd hear the chimes on their phone app.
- jacobkg 9y agoHammocks?
- nowarninglabel 9y agoWe have a quiet room with a hammock. I've napped on it many a time.
- olliepop 9y agoWe have an unofficial napping area at work which consists of a beanbag under a staircase next to a warm window. I think a comfortable seat (i.e sofa/beanbag) is enough to encourage and support power napping.
- duncan_bayne 9y agoSeveral of my previous employers have been nap-friendly. At one we even had a hammock on a frame in the office; I used to lie down in that with a timer set for 15 minutes and nap when necessary. My current employer has a 'pool room' with couches, plants and nature sounds. Great for a brief nap. In my experience, this sort of thing is _especially_ helpful for new parents :)
- INTPenis 9y agoWhere I live it's law that a workplace with a certain number of workers must have a resting room where you can take a nap. Sure enough my workplace has one. There was a big thing when it was discovered that another branch, smaller but still above the threshold of employees, did not have a resting room. Not sure how that played out but essentially you have an "employee safety officer" that handles the case with the union until the requirement is met. I go in there around 15:00 and nap for about 30 minutes, apologize to no one. It's nice and dark, you put a note on the door so no one disturbs you.
- djsumdog 9y agoI worked in a New Zealand shop that had a "quiet room" .. not everyone knew about it. You get a buddy on day one to take you around the building and not everyone covers it (don't think it was on the sheet). It had two recliner chairs a single mattress and .. a sink for some reason (We think it may have been a dentist's office once from the layout). Other places I've sometimes found places under stairwells on bottom floors or used one of the phone rooms. 10 ~ 15 min is all you need really. Then just inject yourself with two more cups of coffee, put on your headphones and code monkey away. I realize the IT field is kinda unique in that people can get away with this, at least with good managers who care more about your output and deliverables than the amount of time you're at your desk.
- fffernan 9y agoAlthough this may be true and effective. 80% of the folks reading this are just going to use it as an excuse to be more lazy.
- kashkhan 9y agobecause most non nappers are spending every hour of their day outputting world changing products, and the people who don't are lazy.
- CalChris 9y agoNapped at my desk. Napped under the desk. Napped on the couch. Napped in my car. Napped in a meeting. Napped in the nap room.
- anonyte 9y agoI can't risk taking naps, especially in an open space. I'm a loud snorer. I learned that the hard way back in college at an afternoon course, where, for some reason, I decided to sit first row in the lecture hall. My lab has nap boxes. However, I can't even use those since they are made of cupboard and are in the library of all places.
- reledi 9y agoTheir perfect guide to napping says to aim for 20 minutes and no more. This is really tricky because you can't just set a timer for 30 minutes because the time it takes to fall asleep is variable. Are there any wearables or techniques to solve this problem of starting a timer when you fall asleep?
- orthoganol 9y agoApparently in Japan napping at work is honorable because it proves you are working hard and late. Funny that the idea of "slacker" isn't the first thing that crosses their mind. East Asia is a different land.
- cloverich 9y agoExcept don't they actually work really long hours? I visited recently, it seemed like falling asleep on the train (etc.) was normal and they just looked so exhausted, i'd assumed it was the only way they were getting enough in.
- orthoganol 9y agoI didn't mean to say they are slacking, just that it's funny over here the first thing we would think is 'slacker', but the idea of interpreting it as slacking just doesn't cross their mind.
- nisse72 9y agoNapping aside, when (or where) did "leaving your desk for lunch" become taboo? Is this an American thing? In most places I've worked it would be unusual to stay at your desk for lunch, and in many places it would be discouraged. People really need to use their lunch time, however long or short, to actually take a break, not just from work but also from sitting in front of the computer, and maybe get a few minutes of fresh air and natural sunlight.
- totalZero 9y agoOn a trading desk, it's unusual for more than one or two people to leave their seats at a time for lunch. And often, the team will order delivery and one of the junior guys will go downstairs to pick it up. Once, I left my seat to go to Starbucks for about twelve minutes. In that time, the AVGO/BRCM merger was announced, and my BRCM position made $500k in my absence. So there's at least one major industry in NY where it's generally discouraged for people to leave their desks.
- mattjaynes 9y agoI NEED naps. It's just how I'm built. I can feel my I.Q. going down when I need a nap. After a quick nap, my I.Q. feels much improved. Storytime: I once interviewed for job in Delaware. It was exhausting. I did great in the interviews, but my mind was burned out after all the technical questions. So I asked if they had a spot where I could nap for a few minutes. They were a bit puzzled, but showed me to a spot where I could sit in a chair and lean back to nap. It was great and I got the job - it wasn't till months later that they mentioned they almost didn't hire me because of the nap incident during the interview! So, I do recommend naps at work, but I'd say not everyone will understand if you nap at your first onsite interview. YMMV ;) Fortunately attitudes seem to finally be changing about sleep and brain optimization.
- nether 9y agoThis was one of the awesome things about switching to Soylent for lunch. I'd sip it at my desk around my lunch break, and close my door during lunch for an hour of glorious shuteye.
- dang 9y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14651287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14651287