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I find it weird that many cultures have a noon time or afternoon time siesta -- but for some reason the Anglophone cultures don't. Something about the Protestan
by hungryforcodes 5y ago
I find it weird that many cultures have a noon time or afternoon time siesta -- but for some reason the Anglophone cultures don't. Something about the Protestant work ethic? (I know these are in theory secular societies, but the cultural relics remain)
When I was teaching at one of the local SEA universities they had an entire room for lecturers to sleep during the 1.5 hour lunch break. It had double bunk beds maybe 30 or so. It was well used from 12pm to 1:30pm.
I'll tell you -- this was magic. Even just being able to sleep for 30 minutes (after getting lunch and catching up on my phone) between classes was rejuvenating.
I never had that 2pm "nod off", which I did when working in Western style jobs...
My point being this is a kind of bi-phasic sleep.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoI think it has to do with temperatures. In some countries it's very hot at noon so working is difficult. Especially with air conditioning.
- nine_zeros 5y agoAnd that sunlight is available abundantly early morning and late evening.
- kranner 5y agoIsn't air conditioning intended to solve the too-hot-to-work problem?
- warent 5y agoVast majority of working humans have no AC in their work environment. Highly wealthy counties like the US often forget we're in the luxury minority
- kranner 5y agoI'm in India, a non-wealthy non-AC too-hot-to-work-at-noon country (for most parts of the country almost all through the year). I was responding to this sentence: > In some countries it's very hot at noon so working is difficult. Especially with air conditioning. I'm confused because it sounds as if GP meant that air conditioning exacerbates the problem of it being too hot to work. The intent of installing AC is definitely to improve productivity that would be lost to the uncomfortable climate.
- drewcoo 5y agoA/C is a pretty new invention. Mid-day rest is an older convention. And it's a matter of social convention at this point rather than a practical solution to a problem. We're social animals and that tends to happen.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoMy point though being-- even with AC it's a good innovation. We are all chronically short on sleep these days. I'm surprised about the resistance to it in this thread.
- gruez 5y ago>We are all chronically short on sleep these days. I'm surprised about the resistance to it in this thread. People are short on sleep because they have too much stuff to do, not because there aren't enough opportunities to sleep. Adding an hour of sleep at noon isn't a free lunch (heh). You'll have one less hour of work done during the day, so all else being equal, you'll probably go to sleep 1 hour later and benefits are neutralized.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoThat's not true though if you were underslept in the first place. You'd just be catching up at your noon nap. Also it is a free lunch. People sleeping DURING their lunch. I'm not sure how this would add to their workload if they are doing it anyways. Also now everyone is remote so WHY not have a noon nap? Even at my last startup which was in the West we had a nap couch and it was in constant use from like 1pm to 3pm. But as I said - Anglophones seem to like punishing themselves.
- roberto2016 5y agomissed the "without" in the AC statement i think.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoCorrect. I am horrible at typing on the phone.
- KineticLensman 5y ago> I think it has to do with temperatures. More likely shorter days as you go further North. If you slept at lunchtime until 14:30 there would be less than two hours of usable daylight left during December and January. [Edit] - This for the latitude of Southern England.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- fouc 5y agowhich SEA country/university was that?
- magnio 5y agoCould be any. A nap at noon isn't just popular; it's ubiquitous in SEA.
- fouc 5y agoI haven't seen that happening at offices in SEA.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoYou haven't been working in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. You work in Singapore I assume? It's hyper westernized.
- rdedev 5y agoI studied in a boarding school which had a mandatory meditation time around 2 pm. This was exactly the time when we would me feeling very sleepy. Probably because of peak digestion time after we finished our lunch. Anyways we all would just sleep off in the bench instead of meditating. Really helped us concentrate on the rest of the classes
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- donw 5y agoChina and Japan would like a word…
- unmole 5y agoAbout what exactly? I don't know about Japan but post lunch siesta is very much a thing in China. Even employees working 996 schedules take a nap.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoIt would be impossible to do it otherwise.
- JetAlone 5y agoSiestas are a thing in Japan to a limited extent, mostly for blue collar workers, especially ones who drive for a living, in the seat of their vehicle.
- aaron695 5y ago
- sandworm101 5y agoLight. In the global south the days are a little longer. Part of the prodistant work ethic, which comes from northern europe, is based on the far shorter workday in the winter. You dont take naps if you only have eight hours of useful daylight. Even in summer the sun is always lower on the horizon. So too the dramatic shift from summer to winter. Even in high summer no time can be wasted in preparing for winter. The drive to make use of limited time is tied to the seasons.