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This is a well known practise in Spain. I com from Spain and I have always seen my family (parents and grandparents) drinking coffee after lunch and, then, doin
by pqs 12y ago
This is a well known practise in Spain. I com from Spain and I have always seen my family (parents and grandparents) drinking coffee after lunch and, then, doing a nap on the couch. Usually, we sit on the couch, take the coffee together and then every person takes a newspaper or magazine and after a few minutes of pseudo-reading everybody is sleeping or in a state of deep relaxation. We sleep for 20 minutes. That's all. I guess this is very common in Spain.
This works well because we often take lunch at home. But, now that I have lunch at the office, I do the same. I have a 1 hour pause. The first half hour I have lunch, then I take the coffee and I go to the office to sleep on the floor, on a very thin mattress. If my brain is too active, I listen to a foreign radio station with my iPhone. I like to listen to ICI Radio Canada (in French). When I have lunch here, they broadcast the morning news and commentary. The news are about stuff happening in Quebec. It is interesting enough for me to forget the work stuff, and dull enough to induce me into a deeper relaxation state, which allows me to fall sleep fast. Being the broadcast in a foreing language, also helps to fall sleep. I often dream during this 20-30 minutes naps.
An interesting detail is that I had to learn this habit. I remember being a child and being pissed off because I wasn't allowed to make noise after lunch. Now, that I'm a father, the roles are changing and I'm the one sleeping after lunch.
By the way, at night, in order to fall sleep, I never take phones, tablets or computers to my bedroom. Instead, I take a shortwave radio and I tune the BBC world service news (fortunately, in Spain we can hear the broadcast directed to Africa). I put a 30 minutes timer on the radio and I almost never hear it stopping, because I fall sleep before. The day that the BBC will shut the SW broadcast, I guess I will take a bluetooth headset or speaker to my bedroom, but not the iPhone. It is very important to avoid computers in the bedroom.
- gurtwo 12y agoAs a spaniard myself, I can confirm this is an accurate description of what siesta looks like on most cases. Short nap on the couch after a coffee, for those who take lunch at home, or just on the weekends otherwise.
- aeire 12y agohmm.. i believe this is pretty the same in Greece, at least during weekends, holidays and work-free days. In every lunch-gathering with close relatives, or close friends, at least one or two person take a short nap on the couch after the lunch, while the rest are having a relaxed and low voice chat. Usually the persons who fall asleep are males.
- chii 12y agowow, how does anyone get anything done in that country! Compare it to the asian countries that work 16 hour days....
- coldtea 12y ago>how does anyone get anything done in that country! By not confusing actually doing work with being kept busy for 16 hours to please the "company" / "boss". Plus, it's not like this happens everytime and for everyone. People in Greece work longer hours than most of Europeans. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/16/greeks-work-harder-than-germans-who-knew/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/16...
- mchaver 12y agoNapping is quite common in China and Taiwan at the work place and at school. People are overworked though.
- orand 12y agoNapping is actually a big part of the culture. You'll see many people catching naps on trains, buses, and other public places, even while standing up. Japan has its own word "inemuri" for the practice of sleeping on the job, which is sometimes even faked to make it look like they're working hard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inemuri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inemuri Recently this practice has become more accepted company policy. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/06/07/editorials/power-napping-performance/ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/06/07/editorials/po...
- 12y ago
- pqs 12y agoI should add that, during siesta, many people fall sleep in front of the TV. In July, the Tour de France is perfect for that, due to the beautiful scenery and the flow of the race.
- jonifico 12y agoHaving a bunch of people in a state like that all together would make for a curious picture. I usually find asian languages better to fall asleep to, there's just something in the way they talk that just does it for me. I'm taking french classes now, so my inner student would try to comprehend what's being said and I'd never fall asleep with that language.
- ConnorG 12y agoI was an avid napper back at college and thoroughly employed the coffee nap technique. Now I'm in the workforce, but my body is still yearning for naps at work. I find myself drifting off here and there, but never fully commit. I'm afraid to take a full nap at work due to how it may look. Do you find yourself being judged for taking naps at work?
- swombat 12y agoYou can take surprisingly good naps sitting in a toilet cubicle - I did so for many months at Accenture and never had a problem. It energised me and enabled me to do better work the rest of the time.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoI thought I was the only one weird enough person in the world to actually nap in a toilet. I can say a lot of good things about my company work culture, but unfortunately, naps in the middle of the work day are frowned upon there.
- ademarre 12y agoIt's a shame that napping is so often frowned upon in hard-working–America culture. It seems to me a rather ignorant tradition. We look everywhere for ways to boost office productivity, yet napping remains an anathema.
- Raphmedia 12y agoDo you have a car? Go in your car! Don't have a car? Go in a park! Generally, you can take a nap fine in the day. Bring a book and sleep with the book on your chest. Nobody is going to disturb someone that fell asleep reading a book.