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Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
- nostromo 16y agoThis article is especially important for places like HN where the "founders never sleep" myth runs rampant.
- maukdaddy 16y agoDisengaging 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.
- rubyrescue 16y agoWhen 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?
- brlewis 16y agoThe editor should have taken a nap.
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoI think what they're saying is that: "Pilots who nap for 30 minutes on a long haul flight improve their reaction time by an average 16% versus their initial reaction time. Pilots who don't take a nap experience a decline in their reaction times making their reaction to stimulus 34% [?] slower by the end of the flight." People tend to say a persons "reaction time has decreased" when they mean the time taken to react has increased, reaction time is given as if it's a score rather than a time period.
- carbocation 16y agoIf 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 16y agoWhat 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 16y agoBaseline 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.
- etal 16y ago1. In the middle of a long flight, compare pilots' reaction times just before the nap to just after the nap. Result: After the nap, reaction times are 16% shorter. 2. Over the entirety of a long flight, test pilot reaction times initially, then at regular intervals until the end of the flight. Result: Without a nap, final reaction times are 34% slower than initial reaction times. Yes, it's a little bit of a factoid soup, and citations would have been nice.
- askar_yu 16y agoI 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 16y agoWhen 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.
- kilian 16y agoEver 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?
- katovatzschyn 16y agoI was raised on essentially this. My (Russian) family and I all (when possible) take ~1 hour nap around afternoon and sleep (all incredibly lightly) for ~3-5 hours at night. If I do not take this nap I feels very tired for the ~2.5 hour window ~5-7 hours after I wake from my ~3-5 hour sleep, and the following night I will require 7-10 hours of "sleep" to feel "fully rested". During these 8-10 hours I will not sleep soundly and spend ~1-3 hours of that time lying in bed unable to sleep but fully weary and exhausted. Personally I prefer this polyphasic sleep, because I have more functionally active waking hours and I experience very vivid and memorable dreams which, though rarely "pleasant," are always incredibly moving and feel critically important to me I do not know if this is universal or if it is genetically unique to my lineage, as again, I've noticed many in my family are the same way as me in this regard. I assume others must then be this way as well, though they may not have been raised thinking this behavior is normal or desirable. The issue comes with scheduling, and this is not always possible. Luckily most of my family is well-off enough to demand whatever they so wish in their vocation. I think most startup founders might be this way also.
- etal 16y agoIt'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.
- wccrawford 16y agoSo 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 16y agoI 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.
- znt 16y agoNapping 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.
- lotusleaf1987 16y agoI'm confused how this was submitted because I submitted the exact same article five days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1714358 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 16y agoreally? 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.
- elbenshira 16y agoA 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.
- thedjpetersen 16y agoI have never really napped during my time here in college, but it sounds intriguing. I have always looked as time as a bit of a commodity and napping seemed like a way to lose a chunk of the day.
- elbenshira 16y agoLose 45 minutes (30 min nap + 15 min setup/teardown) for oh so much more energy for the rest of the day? It might not work out for you, but try it for a week!
- Psyonic 16y agoNot 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 16y agoI 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.
- buzzblog 16y ago20 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?
- TGJ 16y agoI 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?
- borneogamer 16y agoI'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.
- c-oreills 16y agoReading 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?
- bherms 16y agoIn 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.
- dmc320 16y agoI 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 16y agoI 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.)
- chris123 16y agoPower naps are great... and have been for eons. Yet Harvard has just figured it out? LOL. Masters of the obvious.
- lutorm 16y agoIn "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 16y agoI think lunch can also be to blame for afternoon fatigue, depending on what you eat.
- markstansbury 16y agoAfter my surf-and-turf, three-martini lunches, I do tend to get drowsy
- lutorm 16y agoHe specifically says that's not the case.
- davidmurphy 16y agoPower 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 http://amzn.to/bvumKg WorldCat (library catalog search): http://bit.ly/c3NMpF 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 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-sleep-pods-2010-6
- kilian 16y agoI often did this to and from work on the train, it's an amazing quick fix for when you're feeling drowsy.
- alaithea 16y agoThat 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).
- sprout 16y agoOkay, 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.)
- guynamedloren 16y ago"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).
- dlokshin 16y agoAnyone know if taking these short naps during the day affect one's ability to fall asleep at night?
- mattm 16y ago>> 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.
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoMarginal 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 16y agoDon'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 16y agoHeaven forbid people be more productive when they could be clocking exactly eight hours like good little automatons.
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoRead the article again - suggesting its those 8-hour companies that should institute naps.
- TamDenholm 16y agoCan 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 16y agoSame. I can't on purpose. Occasionally on a bus or train I have, but I can't seem to induce that state intentionally.
- bcl 16y agoAm 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.
- rue 16y agoYou are probably napping for too long. 20 minutes is best because you are not hitting deep sleep and may catch some REM (20 mins is also not incidentally the polyphasic sleep prescription).
- Psyonic 16y agoI'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.
- kranner 16y agoYou'd be surprised. I've been aiming for 20 minutes assisted by the iPod's Timer app, and I've hit 11-minute sessions that should qualify as 'naps'. I've noticed that if it accidentally turns into a longer session, a sweet snack and a glass of water helps with the irritability a little.
- jselzer 16y agoI 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.
- yewweitan 16y agoTotally agree. This post by daniel tanner http://danieltenner.com/posts/0017-how-to-nap.html http://danieltenner.com/posts/0017-how-to-nap.html should be a practical complement to this.
- badmash69 16y agoThank 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
- abalashov 16y agoUnfortunately 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 16y agoThe 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.
- panthera 16y agoHere'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.
- lelele 16y agoAsking your employees to waste time in commuting, and then promoting a nap "to improve productivity"? Looks shortsighted to me.
- COP 16y agoMy 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 http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html