Sleeping on the Job
Born of the siesta culture and supported by scientific research, napping is an age-old solution for workplace fatigue.So why aren’t we doing more of it?
Monica Rosenfeld, company director of the public relations and writing company WordStorm, knows that to be successful in PR, you need highly motivated, positive people with lots of energy.“PR is a very people-oriented industry involving lots of communicating, so staff genuinely need to feel good,” she says. And if that means taking a nap that’s fine with her.
Emma Gardiner takes full advantage of WordStorm’s nap-friendly culture. Glad she no longer needs to sleep under her desk, or find a nearby park as she did in her previous job, Emma now feels free to curl up in their chill-out room for a mini-siesta.
“We have LoveSacs in my office so whenever I get sleepy around lunchtime, I go and have a sleep,” says Emma. Before hitting the sack she is foggy in the head, lacks focus and sometimes feels overwhelmed. Twenty minutes later she emerges with clarity and focus.
Numerous scientific studies demonstrate that Emma’s twenty-minute transformation is no fluke. “Research shows that a brief nap can improve your mood and productivity, alleviate tiredness, increase alertness and reduce errors made at work,” says Dr. Gerard Kennedy, a Melbourne-based sleep specialist. “A nap as brief as 10 minutes will produce these results,” he says. Even lying down without sleeping has benefits.
Napping might also boost IQ. Dr Darren Lipnicki from the school of psychology at the Australian National University recently found that people solved anagrams more quickly lying down than when standing, possibly due to differences in brain chemistry induced by a change in posture.
Self-employed, award-winning civil celebrant Wendy Haynes takes full advantage of these benefits. “I nap a few times a week, when I feel tired, or when I can’t work something out,” says Haynes who is based in Coffs Harbour. “I work long hours and even a nap of 10 minutes gives me extra energy. And sometimes it gives me new ideas,” she says. “I’ve realised how crazy it is to say I don’t have time. Napping gives me more time and space. Life is about quality, not how much we can cram in. Napping definitely improves the quality.”
The freedom to nap doesn’t come automatically with being self-employed. Employees and freelancers alike need to tame their inner boss before being able to lie down on the job. “The key thing is to give yourself permission,” reflects Robyn Peace, a New Zealand based international time management specialist who naps. Permission can be a challenge in a culture where doing something - anything - is considered better than doing nothing.
Unlike many corporations that can be constrained by size, tradition and conservatism, small businesses are emerging as enthusiastic champions of workplace napping.
“More and more small businesses are emerging that are taking full license to experiment with how they want to work and do business,” says Rosenfeld. “This includes challenging the old fashioned idea that productivity is all about head down, bum up and work, work, work.”
As these small, flexible enterprises redesign their work-styles, they also need to redesign their offices. Before WordStorm recently moved into its new office space, designed with a chill out space, no one was napping. Not because it was discouraged, they simply didn’t have the room.
Harry Miller, one of Australia's best-known promoters and media managers, makes good use of his company’s meditation room. He actively encourages his staff of nine to “slip up there once or twice a day, put on some quiet meditation music, light the incense, lay back and nap out.” When he slips upstairs himself for an afternoon nap himself, he asks switchboard to give him a wake up call after about 15 minutes. Nap for longer that 20 to 30 minutes and you can experience ‘sleep inertia’ which leaves you feeling groggy. “Napping is a great idea,” says Miller. “It’s a kind of traffic control which slows your brain down.”
The uptake of napping in larger corporations seems much slower. This doesn’t deter Dr William Anthony, Professor at Boston University and Camille Anthony, who advocate workplace napping in the USA as a natural, no-cost way to increase worker productivity. Authors of The Art of Napping at Work, and instigators of US National Workplace Napping Day, these enthusiasts have encouraged companies such as Union Pacific to endorse the day.
In Japan workplace napping has been adopted across a range of industries, including amongst office-based workers, with measured improvements in productivity, according to Kennedy. In Australia, naps are sanctioned for workers such as firemen, doctors and interns on long shifts, and truck drivers, as their alertness can make the difference between life and death. However napping isn’t exactly sweeping the white-collar corporate world, despite its performance enhancing effects.
Some employers fear that napping allows workers to slack on the job - understandable, but not necessarily well founded. The time spent napping is less than the time wasted being awake but drowsy. Plus workers are more productive afterwards, so there’s a double bonus when it comes to output. “I trust my staff and they don’t abuse it,” says Rosenfeld.
Without organisational support, workers fear judgment and can feel guilty for taking a daytime snooze, no matter how much it enhances their performance. “My productivity was so much better when I took a 15-20 minute nap in the afternoon,” says a female employee who wishes to remain anonymous. “It didn’t take much longer than a coffee break to get a result but I felt a nagging guilt that I was letting the team down, even though I would put in a 9 to 10 hour day.”
This fear can send nappers underground as they feel they have to hide their habit.
“During lunchtime I’ll sneak out to my van parked outside my workplace and take a refreshing nap for about 30 minutes,” says one worker in the health care sector who also wishes to remain anonymous. “Sometimes I deliberately work unpaid overtime to clear my conscience, but I don't tell anyone at work of my napping for fear of ridicule or retribution.”
The fear of sleeping at work goes deeper than being judged. Sleep renders us defenceless and vulnerable. Workplace nappers need a safe place before they can let down their guard.
Dr James Maas, originator of the term ‘powernap’ and Professor of Psychology at the Cornell University, believes our modern culture is in the middle of the biggest sleep deprivation experiment ever conducted. When Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, people slept an average of 10 hours a night. Today we sleep an average of seven and a half hours, according to Kennedy. With fatigue being as dangerous as being drunk, and workplace accidents and errors peaking during the afternoon slump, it’s time to give napping a chance.
Workplace Napping
Organisations interested in joining the nascent trend of nap – friendly workplaces
can apply some of the elements of organisational change, such as:
- Senior management support: Provide information about the business benefits of napping. Train managers to nap so they can experience the benefits.
- Assessment: Conduct an organisation- wide survey of staff sleep patterns, level of daytime sleepiness, overall tiredness and attitudes toward the idea of workplace napping.
- Awareness raising: Feed back survey results to management and staff.
- Staff Involvement: Establish a group of interested staff and managers to oversee the project.
- Education: Inform management and staff about the business and personal effects of sleep deprivation, how to improve the quality of sleep in general and the benefits of workplace napping.
- Experiential Training: Train people in the details of napping, such as the optimal time and duration and how to go into and come out of a nap. Give people an experience of napping so they know the benefits for themselves.
- Supportive Policies: Create a nap-friendly policy that has staff and management support.
- Supportive Environments: Create a safe place for napping in the workplace.
- Monitor and Evaluate.
Thea O’Connor is a health promotion consultant, writer and speaker. Ph: 0412 190 860, E: enquiries@thea.com.au, www.thea.com.au
Posted 15 March 2007 | 0 Comments |
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