Dozing on Duty
Naps bolster performance in repetitive visual tasks.
By: Ian Loyd
Bosses may balk at the prospect of employees sleeping on the job, but research indicates that everyone from security guards to musicians may benefit from napping. Just a half hour of sleep is critical to maintaining or improving performance in repetitive tasks such as screening baggage or practicing a musical score. Napping restores cognitive abilities that deteriorate when the visual cortex is overloaded with information, according to Sara Mednick, M.S., a graduate student in psychology at Harvard University and an avowed napper. Although the study focused on repetitive visual tasks, Mednick affirms that anyone can benefit from a short nap.
Mednick asked two groups of students to identify patterns projected rapidly onto a screen. Each group was then allowed to nap for either one half hour or one full hour between tests. A third, nap-deprived group showed a progressive decrease in performance. Conversely, subjects who had slept for a half hour continued to perform at baseline after their first nap, and those who slept for an hour performed the task much more efficiently when they resumed the test.
The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience and funded in part by the Spanish Ministry of Education, offer a persuasive argument for indulging a favorite Spanish pastime: the afternoon siesta.
Psychology Today Magazine, Oct/Nov 2002
Last Reviewed 14 Apr 2008
Article ID: 2353
Psychology Today © Copyright 1991-2008 Sussex Publishers, LLC
115 East 23rd Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Nap Your Way to the Top
Unleash the power of the siesta: Sleeping at work makes employees happier, healthier, and more productive.
By: Carlin Flora
The evidence is overwhelming: Napping on the job is great for you and great for your boss. A power nap of about 20 minutes has been proven to increase alertness and overall productivity in workers. Siestas also boost mood. "Remember when your mother told you to take a nap because you were cranky? She was right," says William Anthony, who co-authored The Art of Napping at Work with his wife Camille.
Anthony, who has a comfy couch with a homemade afghan blanket in his office at Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, says the post-nap energy spike can last for several hours. Though he's long touted napping's cognitive boon, he's currently excited by the cumulating evidence that nappers reap physical benefits, as well: A large, six-year study of Greek adults found that men who took a siesta at least three times per week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.
Yet most bosses still grimace at the thought of a company-wide naptime. "People think nappers are slothful or lazy," Anthony says. "Look at the words surrounding napping: stealing a nap or getting caught napping—they're all pejorative." Employers often remark to Anthony that they aren't paying people to sleep. But maybe they don't know that the return on an investment in an employee nap is much greater than that of the already given lunch, coffee, and cigarette breaks.
There is one New York City-based company, however, where workers risk getting fired for NOT taking their siestas. MetroNaps offers "fatigue mitigation" services for companies big and small, including sleep assessments (testing and interviews to determine if employees are sleep-deprived and how that may be affecting their work) and the installation of futuristic bed-chairs called EnergyPods. Company headquarters also has a quiet retreat in the Empire State Building for clients to sleep during the day.
As a young banker, MetroNaps founder Arshad Chowdhury noticed his co-workers taking naps in the back bathroom stalls to avoid getting reprimanded. After testing the concept of charging people to snooze, he started his company in 2004 and is convinced that our culture's discriminatory attitude toward napping is letting up. Cisco and Google are among his newest clients, and more hospitals are ordering EnergyPods for exhausted heath-care providers.
Anthony's informal surveys have revealed that while women are more sleep-deprived—for a combination of physiological and social reasons, such as their tendency to bear the brunt of childcare—they report more fear of napping during work hours. "We were going to do a book on that but we haven't yet," Anthony says. "I guess we've been napping too much."
Psychology Today Online, 4 Feb 2008
Last Reviewed 9 Apr 2008
Article ID: 4534
Unleash the power of the siesta: Sleeping at work makes employees happier, healthier, and more productive.
By: Carlin Flora
The evidence is overwhelming: Napping on the job is great for you and great for your boss. A power nap of about 20 minutes has been proven to increase alertness and overall productivity in workers. Siestas also boost mood. "Remember when your mother told you to take a nap because you were cranky? She was right," says William Anthony, who co-authored The Art of Napping at Work with his wife Camille.
Anthony, who has a comfy couch with a homemade afghan blanket in his office at Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, says the post-nap energy spike can last for several hours. Though he's long touted napping's cognitive boon, he's currently excited by the cumulating evidence that nappers reap physical benefits, as well: A large, six-year study of Greek adults found that men who took a siesta at least three times per week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.
Yet most bosses still grimace at the thought of a company-wide naptime. "People think nappers are slothful or lazy," Anthony says. "Look at the words surrounding napping: stealing a nap or getting caught napping—they're all pejorative." Employers often remark to Anthony that they aren't paying people to sleep. But maybe they don't know that the return on an investment in an employee nap is much greater than that of the already given lunch, coffee, and cigarette breaks.
There is one New York City-based company, however, where workers risk getting fired for NOT taking their siestas. MetroNaps offers "fatigue mitigation" services for companies big and small, including sleep assessments (testing and interviews to determine if employees are sleep-deprived and how that may be affecting their work) and the installation of futuristic bed-chairs called EnergyPods. Company headquarters also has a quiet retreat in the Empire State Building for clients to sleep during the day.
As a young banker, MetroNaps founder Arshad Chowdhury noticed his co-workers taking naps in the back bathroom stalls to avoid getting reprimanded. After testing the concept of charging people to snooze, he started his company in 2004 and is convinced that our culture's discriminatory attitude toward napping is letting up. Cisco and Google are among his newest clients, and more hospitals are ordering EnergyPods for exhausted heath-care providers.
Anthony's informal surveys have revealed that while women are more sleep-deprived—for a combination of physiological and social reasons, such as their tendency to bear the brunt of childcare—they report more fear of napping during work hours. "We were going to do a book on that but we haven't yet," Anthony says. "I guess we've been napping too much."
Psychology Today Online, 4 Feb 2008
Last Reviewed 9 Apr 2008
Article ID: 4534
Caffeine Has Its Perks
Use moderate amounts of java and smooth the bumps in life.
By: Willow Lawson
Why is it that in the afternoon the British pour a spot of tea, the Spanish succumb to the siesta, and the American reaches for an icy Diet Coke?
Around the globe, we all have ways of coping with the natural patterns of human biology. The afternoon slump, when eyelids droop and shoulders sag, is the result of a complicated dance of the body's chemical messengers.
Caffeine, the drug found in tea, coffee, colas and chocolate, is how billions of people perk up when modern life doesn't allow for a catnap. Yet scientists have long puzzled over how caffeine delivers its zing. Now researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center say caffeine doesn't so much perk us up as prevent us from powering down.
After several hours of hard work, a busy brain has its own mechanism for recharging; it seeks a rest. It triggers a release of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that, like a key opening a lock, attaches to special receptors on the surface of nerve cells throughout brain and body. Once the chemical has opened the lock and delivered its payload to the brain cell, the connection causes drowsiness, promoting sleep.
"Neurons in the brain do things such as talk to each other, process information and coordinate body activities," says Robert W. Greene, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas. As the brain senses that the workday should be coming to a close, it causes the body to release a steady stream of adenosine. Eventually, the accumulation of the chemical will be overwhelming. "It's like it's telling [your brain cells]: 'You guys have worked to hard; take it easy and refresh yourselves,'" says Greene.
A well-timed cup of coffee stymies adenosine, keeps it from doing its job. The result: you stay alert. Your heart rate increases, mood improves and blood vessels constrict.
Up to 90 percent of Americans lean on caffeine daily. Usually, it starts with a hefty dose in the morning to shake off lingering thoughts of a warm bed. But instead of reaching for another super-size jolt later in the day, a group of Harvard Medical School researchers says slow and steady sipping of caffeine is a more effective way to stave off drowsiness. That way the caffeine is steadily countering the effects of adenosine, preventing the roller coaster effect of triple venti latte.
That's not to say that experts recommend caffeine as a long-term antidote to chronic sleep debt, the body's way of keeping score of the rest it has been denied. Only about a third of American adults sleep eight hours or more per night. Another third clock in at less than 6.5 hours, according the National Sleep Foundation.
Although most of us catch up on sleep over the weekend, doing so can further throw the body's natural sleep and wake patterns out of whack. The overall effect can be a rut that is difficult to escape: short-circuited moods, fuzzy problem solving and even weight gain.
The bottom line: Experts say there's no harm is using moderate amounts of caffeine to smooth the bumps in life day to day. But if you use caffeine to muffle a constant howl from an exhausted brain, think about cutting back. It might be time to reevaluate.
Psychology Today Magazine, Jul/Aug 2004
Last Reviewed 14 Apr 2008
Article ID: 3801
Psychology Today © Copyright 1991-2008 Sussex Publishers, LLC
115 East 23rd Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Use moderate amounts of java and smooth the bumps in life.
By: Willow Lawson
Why is it that in the afternoon the British pour a spot of tea, the Spanish succumb to the siesta, and the American reaches for an icy Diet Coke?
Around the globe, we all have ways of coping with the natural patterns of human biology. The afternoon slump, when eyelids droop and shoulders sag, is the result of a complicated dance of the body's chemical messengers.
Caffeine, the drug found in tea, coffee, colas and chocolate, is how billions of people perk up when modern life doesn't allow for a catnap. Yet scientists have long puzzled over how caffeine delivers its zing. Now researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center say caffeine doesn't so much perk us up as prevent us from powering down.
After several hours of hard work, a busy brain has its own mechanism for recharging; it seeks a rest. It triggers a release of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that, like a key opening a lock, attaches to special receptors on the surface of nerve cells throughout brain and body. Once the chemical has opened the lock and delivered its payload to the brain cell, the connection causes drowsiness, promoting sleep.
"Neurons in the brain do things such as talk to each other, process information and coordinate body activities," says Robert W. Greene, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas. As the brain senses that the workday should be coming to a close, it causes the body to release a steady stream of adenosine. Eventually, the accumulation of the chemical will be overwhelming. "It's like it's telling [your brain cells]: 'You guys have worked to hard; take it easy and refresh yourselves,'" says Greene.
A well-timed cup of coffee stymies adenosine, keeps it from doing its job. The result: you stay alert. Your heart rate increases, mood improves and blood vessels constrict.
Up to 90 percent of Americans lean on caffeine daily. Usually, it starts with a hefty dose in the morning to shake off lingering thoughts of a warm bed. But instead of reaching for another super-size jolt later in the day, a group of Harvard Medical School researchers says slow and steady sipping of caffeine is a more effective way to stave off drowsiness. That way the caffeine is steadily countering the effects of adenosine, preventing the roller coaster effect of triple venti latte.
That's not to say that experts recommend caffeine as a long-term antidote to chronic sleep debt, the body's way of keeping score of the rest it has been denied. Only about a third of American adults sleep eight hours or more per night. Another third clock in at less than 6.5 hours, according the National Sleep Foundation.
Although most of us catch up on sleep over the weekend, doing so can further throw the body's natural sleep and wake patterns out of whack. The overall effect can be a rut that is difficult to escape: short-circuited moods, fuzzy problem solving and even weight gain.
The bottom line: Experts say there's no harm is using moderate amounts of caffeine to smooth the bumps in life day to day. But if you use caffeine to muffle a constant howl from an exhausted brain, think about cutting back. It might be time to reevaluate.
Psychology Today Magazine, Jul/Aug 2004
Last Reviewed 14 Apr 2008
Article ID: 3801
Psychology Today © Copyright 1991-2008 Sussex Publishers, LLC
115 East 23rd Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Monday, March 24, 2008
Falling asleep on the job can improve your memory, study shows
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) - March 23, 2008
Hamburg, Germany (dpa) - Falling asleep on the job for a few minutes can improve your memory and mental performance, according to a team of German researchers.
Dr. Olaf Lahl at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, has shown that simply falling asleep does more than refresh the brain - it can improve recall and mental efficiency.
In fact, a six-minute nap can have the same effect as nighttime sleep on memory.
Dr. Lahl's team asked students to memorize a list of vocabulary and tested their ability to recall the list after an hour of playing solitaire.
Volunteers were asked to remember a list of 30 words. They were then given an hour's break before the memory test. During the break, some volunteers were allowed to nap for six minutes, while others had to stay awake.
The researchers found that those who had been allowed to nap displayed "superior recall" in the memory test compared to those who stayed awake.
The researchers said this was the first time that a very brief sleep has been shown to improve memory.
"To our knowledge, this demonstrates for the first time that an ultra-brief sleep episode provides an effective memory enhancement," Lahl he writes in the Journal of Sleep Research.
His researchers found that it was possible that falling asleep triggered a process in the brain that continued regardless of how long the person stayed asleep.
"It seems much more is happening during the initialization of sleep than we once thought," Dr. Lahl says.
"Maybe much of sleep's functional aspects are accomplished at its very beginning," writes in the article.
Copyright 2008 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) - March 23, 2008
Hamburg, Germany (dpa) - Falling asleep on the job for a few minutes can improve your memory and mental performance, according to a team of German researchers.
Dr. Olaf Lahl at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, has shown that simply falling asleep does more than refresh the brain - it can improve recall and mental efficiency.
In fact, a six-minute nap can have the same effect as nighttime sleep on memory.
Dr. Lahl's team asked students to memorize a list of vocabulary and tested their ability to recall the list after an hour of playing solitaire.
Volunteers were asked to remember a list of 30 words. They were then given an hour's break before the memory test. During the break, some volunteers were allowed to nap for six minutes, while others had to stay awake.
The researchers found that those who had been allowed to nap displayed "superior recall" in the memory test compared to those who stayed awake.
The researchers said this was the first time that a very brief sleep has been shown to improve memory.
"To our knowledge, this demonstrates for the first time that an ultra-brief sleep episode provides an effective memory enhancement," Lahl he writes in the Journal of Sleep Research.
His researchers found that it was possible that falling asleep triggered a process in the brain that continued regardless of how long the person stayed asleep.
"It seems much more is happening during the initialization of sleep than we once thought," Dr. Lahl says.
"Maybe much of sleep's functional aspects are accomplished at its very beginning," writes in the article.
Copyright 2008 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Rewards of Shut-EyeAdequate sleep reduces stress. A midday nap can help deal with information overload.
By: Hara Estroff Marano
Fact: A midday nap reverses information overload—those feelings of irritation, frustration and declining performance on mental tasks that set in during intense encounters with new information.
Fact: The late stage of sleep—sometimes missed by early risers—can boost by 20% your acquisition of coordination crucial for playing a sport, a musical instrument, or any fine motor control.
Fact: Sleep strengthens the nerve circuits that underlie learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neural connections.
Fact: Missing out on sleep seriously impairs the body's ability to process blood sugar, impeding the action of insulin much as in diabetes. Sleep deprivation may be an important contributor to obesity. It also elevates the stress hormone cortisol.
Fact: Sleeping for six hours a night may sound pretty good, but it's not likely enough to keep your immune system happy. Restricting your sleep by a mere two hours a night for one week provokes the process of inflammation, which may set people up for heart disease.
Fact: Sleep deprivation curtails your ability to come up with creative solutions to life's challenges.
No doubt you know by now that sleep doesn't just put the brain on hold while you lay in bed. Your brain is very active during sleep. Sleep organizes the memories of habits, actions, and skills learned during the day. Sleep gives you the mental energy to master complex tasks and the ability to concentrate.
In other words, success comes not only from what you accomplish when you are awake. We also get power from the ability of body and mind to consolidate themselves during the night.
Sleep is so important that your brain remembers how much of it you get. And it compensates for sleep loss by allowing you to fall asleep faster and staying asleep longer the next night.
Sacrifice sleep and you sacrifice peak performance. It's noticeable in rates of traffic accidents and work injuries.
The trouble is, modern life is eating away at your sleep. There's too much to do, and too little time to do it in. So we give up sleep. More and more, we are sleeping less and less, and building up a sleep debt in the process.
The trouble is, say experts, society may have changed since the introduction of the light bulb eroded the natural cycles of day and night to which our energy levels are tuned. But our bodies have not.
There's no one set amount of sleep that's best for everyone. People vary greatly in their need for sleep. Still, surveys by the National Sleep Foundation report that most adults get less sleep than they need. On average, adults sleep seven hours a night during the workweek. Only 35% of adults sleep eight hours or more per night; 36% sleep 6.5 hours or less. Most people compensate by sleeping longer on weekends, a switch guaranteed to keep your body clock confused.
The price we pay for cheating sleep is steep: short-changing the brain of learning potential, short-circuiting your moods, and dimming your alertness, maybe even making you gain weight and compromising your health. Coffee can keep you going for a while. But nothing can compensate for sleep. Your body needs it and your brain needs it.
Cornell psychologist James B. Maas, Ph.D., qualifies as one of the nation's leading sleep advocates. In his book Power Sleep (HarperCollins), he implores us to sleep not necessarily more but more efficiently, so we can always perform at our best. Here are his Golden Rules of sleep.
Get an adequate amount of sleep every night. Identify the amount of sleep you need to be fully alert all day long and get that amount every night. It will dramatically change your mood and your ability to think critically and creatively. For some people, six hours a night may be adequate. One or two in a hundred can get by on five hours. Many others will need as much as nine or 10 hours. Whatever the amount, most people need 60 to 90 minutes more sleep than they presently get.
Establish a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed every night at the same time and wake up without an alarm clock at the same time every morning—including weekends. Within six weeks the hours you spend in bed will begin to synchronize with the sleepy phase of your biological clock. Your mood will be the winner.
Get continuous sleep. For sleep to be rejuvenating you should get your required amount of sleep in one continuous block.
Make up for lost sleep as soon as possible, even though you cannot replace lost sleep all at once. And when you sleep longer to catch up, try to do so by going to bed earlier than usual. Otherwise your normal waking time will shift and you're unlikely to get to sleep at the usual time the following night.
Sweet dreams.
Psychology Today Online, 25 April 2003Last Reviewed 13 Feb 2008Article ID: 2718
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By: Hara Estroff Marano
Fact: A midday nap reverses information overload—those feelings of irritation, frustration and declining performance on mental tasks that set in during intense encounters with new information.
Fact: The late stage of sleep—sometimes missed by early risers—can boost by 20% your acquisition of coordination crucial for playing a sport, a musical instrument, or any fine motor control.
Fact: Sleep strengthens the nerve circuits that underlie learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neural connections.
Fact: Missing out on sleep seriously impairs the body's ability to process blood sugar, impeding the action of insulin much as in diabetes. Sleep deprivation may be an important contributor to obesity. It also elevates the stress hormone cortisol.
Fact: Sleeping for six hours a night may sound pretty good, but it's not likely enough to keep your immune system happy. Restricting your sleep by a mere two hours a night for one week provokes the process of inflammation, which may set people up for heart disease.
Fact: Sleep deprivation curtails your ability to come up with creative solutions to life's challenges.
No doubt you know by now that sleep doesn't just put the brain on hold while you lay in bed. Your brain is very active during sleep. Sleep organizes the memories of habits, actions, and skills learned during the day. Sleep gives you the mental energy to master complex tasks and the ability to concentrate.
In other words, success comes not only from what you accomplish when you are awake. We also get power from the ability of body and mind to consolidate themselves during the night.
Sleep is so important that your brain remembers how much of it you get. And it compensates for sleep loss by allowing you to fall asleep faster and staying asleep longer the next night.
Sacrifice sleep and you sacrifice peak performance. It's noticeable in rates of traffic accidents and work injuries.
The trouble is, modern life is eating away at your sleep. There's too much to do, and too little time to do it in. So we give up sleep. More and more, we are sleeping less and less, and building up a sleep debt in the process.
The trouble is, say experts, society may have changed since the introduction of the light bulb eroded the natural cycles of day and night to which our energy levels are tuned. But our bodies have not.
There's no one set amount of sleep that's best for everyone. People vary greatly in their need for sleep. Still, surveys by the National Sleep Foundation report that most adults get less sleep than they need. On average, adults sleep seven hours a night during the workweek. Only 35% of adults sleep eight hours or more per night; 36% sleep 6.5 hours or less. Most people compensate by sleeping longer on weekends, a switch guaranteed to keep your body clock confused.
The price we pay for cheating sleep is steep: short-changing the brain of learning potential, short-circuiting your moods, and dimming your alertness, maybe even making you gain weight and compromising your health. Coffee can keep you going for a while. But nothing can compensate for sleep. Your body needs it and your brain needs it.
Cornell psychologist James B. Maas, Ph.D., qualifies as one of the nation's leading sleep advocates. In his book Power Sleep (HarperCollins), he implores us to sleep not necessarily more but more efficiently, so we can always perform at our best. Here are his Golden Rules of sleep.
Get an adequate amount of sleep every night. Identify the amount of sleep you need to be fully alert all day long and get that amount every night. It will dramatically change your mood and your ability to think critically and creatively. For some people, six hours a night may be adequate. One or two in a hundred can get by on five hours. Many others will need as much as nine or 10 hours. Whatever the amount, most people need 60 to 90 minutes more sleep than they presently get.
Establish a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed every night at the same time and wake up without an alarm clock at the same time every morning—including weekends. Within six weeks the hours you spend in bed will begin to synchronize with the sleepy phase of your biological clock. Your mood will be the winner.
Get continuous sleep. For sleep to be rejuvenating you should get your required amount of sleep in one continuous block.
Make up for lost sleep as soon as possible, even though you cannot replace lost sleep all at once. And when you sleep longer to catch up, try to do so by going to bed earlier than usual. Otherwise your normal waking time will shift and you're unlikely to get to sleep at the usual time the following night.
Sweet dreams.
Psychology Today Online, 25 April 2003Last Reviewed 13 Feb 2008Article ID: 2718
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Nap Your Way to the TopUnleash the power of the siesta: Sleeping at work makes employees happier, healthier, and more productive.
By: Carlin Flora
The evidence is overwhelming: Napping on the job is great for you and great for your boss. A power nap of about 20 minutes has been proven to increase alertness and overall productivity in workers. Siestas also boost mood. "Remember when your mother told you to take a nap because you were cranky? She was right," says William Anthony, who co-authored The Art of Napping at Work with his wife Camille.
Anthony, who has a comfy couch with a homemade afghan blanket in his office at Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, says the post-nap energy spike can last for several hours. Though he's long touted napping's cognitive boon, he's currently excited by the cumulating evidence that nappers reap physical benefits, as well: A large, six-year study of Greek adults found that men who took a siesta at least three times per week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.
Yet most bosses still grimace at the thought of a company-wide naptime. "People think nappers are slothful or lazy," Anthony says. "Look at the words surrounding napping: stealing a nap or getting caught napping—they're all pejorative." Employers often remark to Anthony that they aren't paying people to sleep. But maybe they don't know that the return on an investment in an employee nap is much greater than that of the already given lunch, coffee, and cigarette breaks.
There is one New York City-based company, however, where workers risk getting fired for NOT taking their siestas. MetroNaps offers "fatigue mitigation" services for companies big and small, including sleep assessments (testing and interviews to determine if employees are sleep-deprived and how that may be affecting their work) and the installation of futuristic bed-chairs called EnergyPods. Company headquarters also has a quiet retreat in the Empire State Building for clients to sleep during the day (at a cost of $65 per month).
As a young banker, MetroNaps founder Arshad Chowdhury noticed his co-workers taking naps in the back bathroom stalls to avoid getting reprimanded. After testing the concept of charging people to snooze, he started his company in 2004 and is convinced that our culture's discriminatory attitude toward napping is letting up. Cisco and Google are among his newest clients, and more hospitals are ordering EnergyPods for exhausted heath-care providers.
Anthony's informal surveys have revealed that while women are more sleep-deprived—for a combination of physiological and social reasons, such as their tendency to bear the brunt of childcare—they report more fear of napping during work hours. "We were going to do a book on that but we haven't yet," Anthony says. "I guess we've been napping too much."
Psychology Today Online, 4 Feb 2008Last Reviewed 13 Feb 2008Article ID: 4534
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Psychology Today © Copyright 1991-2008 Sussex Publishers, LLC115 East 23rd Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010
By: Carlin Flora
The evidence is overwhelming: Napping on the job is great for you and great for your boss. A power nap of about 20 minutes has been proven to increase alertness and overall productivity in workers. Siestas also boost mood. "Remember when your mother told you to take a nap because you were cranky? She was right," says William Anthony, who co-authored The Art of Napping at Work with his wife Camille.
Anthony, who has a comfy couch with a homemade afghan blanket in his office at Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, says the post-nap energy spike can last for several hours. Though he's long touted napping's cognitive boon, he's currently excited by the cumulating evidence that nappers reap physical benefits, as well: A large, six-year study of Greek adults found that men who took a siesta at least three times per week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.
Yet most bosses still grimace at the thought of a company-wide naptime. "People think nappers are slothful or lazy," Anthony says. "Look at the words surrounding napping: stealing a nap or getting caught napping—they're all pejorative." Employers often remark to Anthony that they aren't paying people to sleep. But maybe they don't know that the return on an investment in an employee nap is much greater than that of the already given lunch, coffee, and cigarette breaks.
There is one New York City-based company, however, where workers risk getting fired for NOT taking their siestas. MetroNaps offers "fatigue mitigation" services for companies big and small, including sleep assessments (testing and interviews to determine if employees are sleep-deprived and how that may be affecting their work) and the installation of futuristic bed-chairs called EnergyPods. Company headquarters also has a quiet retreat in the Empire State Building for clients to sleep during the day (at a cost of $65 per month).
As a young banker, MetroNaps founder Arshad Chowdhury noticed his co-workers taking naps in the back bathroom stalls to avoid getting reprimanded. After testing the concept of charging people to snooze, he started his company in 2004 and is convinced that our culture's discriminatory attitude toward napping is letting up. Cisco and Google are among his newest clients, and more hospitals are ordering EnergyPods for exhausted heath-care providers.
Anthony's informal surveys have revealed that while women are more sleep-deprived—for a combination of physiological and social reasons, such as their tendency to bear the brunt of childcare—they report more fear of napping during work hours. "We were going to do a book on that but we haven't yet," Anthony says. "I guess we've been napping too much."
Psychology Today Online, 4 Feb 2008Last Reviewed 13 Feb 2008Article ID: 4534
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Psychology Today © Copyright 1991-2008 Sussex Publishers, LLC115 East 23rd Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Siesta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
This article is about the short nap. For other uses, see Siesta (disambiguation).
A painting of a young woman taking a siesta. (The hammock, Gustave Courbet (1844).)
A siesta (IPA: /siːˈɛstə/, original Spanish pronunciation IPA: [ˈsjest̪a]) is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. Such a period of sleep is a common tradition in some countries, particulary those where the weather is warm. The word siesta is Spanish, from the Latin hora sexta - "the sixth hour" (counting from dawn, therefore noon, hence "midday rest").
Contents[hide]
1 Origins of the Iberian siesta
2 The afternoon nap
3 Biological need for naps
4 Siesta in other cultures
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
//
[edit] Origins of the Iberian siesta
The siesta is the traditional daily sleep of the Iberian peninsula and, through Spanish influence, of Latin American countries. Afternoon sleep is also a common habit in the Philippines, China, India, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Malta, the Middle East and North Africa. In these countries, the heat can be unbearable in the early afternoon, making a midday break in the comfort of one's home ideal. However, in some countries where naps are taken, such as Northern Spain, Southern Argentina, and Chile, the climate is similar to that of Canada and Northern Europe. Besides the climate, in many countries with this habit it is common to have the largest meal of the day in the afternoon, in contrast with other countries where only a lighter lunch is taken.
The original concept of a siesta was merely that of a midday break. This break was intended to allow people time to be spent with their friends and family.
Others suggest that the long length of the modern siesta dates back to the Spanish Civil War, when poverty resulted in many Spaniards working multiple jobs at irregular hours, pushing back meals to later in the afternoon and evening.1 However, this hypothesis sounds unlikely, considering that the siesta tradition is very common in Latin America and other countries with Hispanic influence, much before the Spanish Civil War.
Although colonized by Portugal, being part of South America, and clearly dominated by equatorial to tropical climate, Brazil stands in glaring cultural contrast in regard to the adoption of an afternoon nap.
[edit] The afternoon nap
A steel yard worker enjoying his "bhat-ghum" on steel bars and a gunnybag in Whitefield steel yard, Bangalore, India
Today, the term "siesta" refers to a short nap (15 to 30 minutes) taken after the midday meal. Siestas are traditionally no longer than 30 minutes and are more of a light rest than any kind of serious sleep. Other names for a siesta may include: cat nap, snooze, doze, kip, winks, power nap, or simply, afternoon nap.
In Argentina, the siesta is supposed to be between 13:00 and 16:00, and in some regions, such as Santiago del Estero, it is called "sacred" because people do not want to be disturbed. Business hours in these regions are usually 8:00 to 12:00 and 16:00 to 20:00. Other business hours (extended) vary between 6:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 21:00, but most either add or shift 30 minutes to the regular 8-12/16-20 times. In bigger cities such as Buenos Aires, and with the time and money it takes to commute, businesses just use 9-to-6 time.
In Malta, business hours are usually between 9:00 and 12:30 and from 16:00 to 19:00 to enable workmen to return home during the break, have lunch and possibly take a siesta. Due to the shortness of distance between the place of business and their residence, this practice is not uncommon.
Older, pre-teenage children are usually incapable of napping, but acquire the ability to nap as teenagers.[1] Some people sleep the whole time (up to two hours), but most people watch television or take a short 15 to 30 minute nap. In any case, the streets are deserted at the siesta time in siesta-practicing cities.
[edit] Biological need for naps
The timing of sleep in humans depends upon a balance between homeostatic sleep propensity, the need for sleep as a function of the amount of time elapsed since the last adequate sleep episode, and circadian rhythms which determine the ideal timing of a correctly structured and restorative sleep episode. The homeostatic pressure to sleep starts growing upon awakening. The circadian signal for wakefulness starts building in the (late) afternoon. As Harvard sleep researcher Charles Czeisler puts it:
"The circadian system is set up in a beautiful way to override the homeostatic drive for sleep."[2]
Thus, in many people, there is a dip when the drive for sleep has been building for hours and the drive for wakefulness hasn't started yet. This is, again quoting Czeisler, "a great time for a nap." The drive for wakefulness intensifies through the evening, making it difficult to get to sleep 2-3 hours before one's usual bedtime when the wake maintenance zone ends.
In some individuals, postprandial dip, a brief drop in blood glucose levels caused by the body's normal insulin response to a heavy meal, may produce drowsiness after the meal that can encourage a nap. However, the appearance of the dip is primarily circadian as it occurs also in the absence of the meal.
[edit] Siesta in other cultures
Dentist and pharmacist sharing similar business hours in the island of Lipsi, Greece
The concept of a midday nap is also prominent in other tropical or subtropical countries, where the afternoon heat dramatically reduces work productivity. The Washington Post of February 13, 2007 reports at length on studies in Greece that indicate that those who nap have less risk of heart attack. [1]
In South Asia, the idea of a post-lunch nap is common, and the idea of going to sleep after a light massage with mustard oil to induce drowsiness was very popular before industrialization. It was also very popular to consume a light snack during this ritual; it was thought that this practice would make one a better person.[citation needed] In Bangladesh and Indian Bengal, the word which describes the concept is bhat-ghum, literally meaning "rice-sleep" (nap after consuming rice).
Afternoon sleep is also a common habit in China and Taiwan. This is called xiuxi or wushui in Chinese. Its main difference from the siesta is that it lasts between two and three hours. It occurs after the midday meal and is even a constitutional right (article 43, Right to rest). Almost all schools in Mainland China and Taiwan have a half-hour '"nap period'" right after lunch. This is a time when all lights are out and one is not allowed to do anything else than sleep.
Some Japanese offices have special rooms known as napping rooms for their workers to take a nap during lunch break or after overtime work.
In Islam, it is encouraged to take a short nap around 15-30 minutes before the time for Dhuhr prayers, with the intention of doing tahajjud later in the night.
[edit] See also
Sleep
Dream
Power nap
Sleep debt
Segmented sleep
[edit] References
^ Dement, William (1999). The Promise of Sleep. Dell Publishing, 113-115. ISBN 0-440-50901-7.
^ Lambert, Craig, Ph.D. (July-August 2005). "Deep into Sleep. While researchers probe sleep’s functions, sleep itself is becoming a lost art". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
This article is about the short nap. For other uses, see Siesta (disambiguation).
A painting of a young woman taking a siesta. (The hammock, Gustave Courbet (1844).)
A siesta (IPA: /siːˈɛstə/, original Spanish pronunciation IPA: [ˈsjest̪a]) is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. Such a period of sleep is a common tradition in some countries, particulary those where the weather is warm. The word siesta is Spanish, from the Latin hora sexta - "the sixth hour" (counting from dawn, therefore noon, hence "midday rest").
Contents[hide]
1 Origins of the Iberian siesta
2 The afternoon nap
3 Biological need for naps
4 Siesta in other cultures
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
//
[edit] Origins of the Iberian siesta
The siesta is the traditional daily sleep of the Iberian peninsula and, through Spanish influence, of Latin American countries. Afternoon sleep is also a common habit in the Philippines, China, India, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Malta, the Middle East and North Africa. In these countries, the heat can be unbearable in the early afternoon, making a midday break in the comfort of one's home ideal. However, in some countries where naps are taken, such as Northern Spain, Southern Argentina, and Chile, the climate is similar to that of Canada and Northern Europe. Besides the climate, in many countries with this habit it is common to have the largest meal of the day in the afternoon, in contrast with other countries where only a lighter lunch is taken.
The original concept of a siesta was merely that of a midday break. This break was intended to allow people time to be spent with their friends and family.
Others suggest that the long length of the modern siesta dates back to the Spanish Civil War, when poverty resulted in many Spaniards working multiple jobs at irregular hours, pushing back meals to later in the afternoon and evening.1 However, this hypothesis sounds unlikely, considering that the siesta tradition is very common in Latin America and other countries with Hispanic influence, much before the Spanish Civil War.
Although colonized by Portugal, being part of South America, and clearly dominated by equatorial to tropical climate, Brazil stands in glaring cultural contrast in regard to the adoption of an afternoon nap.
[edit] The afternoon nap
A steel yard worker enjoying his "bhat-ghum" on steel bars and a gunnybag in Whitefield steel yard, Bangalore, India
Today, the term "siesta" refers to a short nap (15 to 30 minutes) taken after the midday meal. Siestas are traditionally no longer than 30 minutes and are more of a light rest than any kind of serious sleep. Other names for a siesta may include: cat nap, snooze, doze, kip, winks, power nap, or simply, afternoon nap.
In Argentina, the siesta is supposed to be between 13:00 and 16:00, and in some regions, such as Santiago del Estero, it is called "sacred" because people do not want to be disturbed. Business hours in these regions are usually 8:00 to 12:00 and 16:00 to 20:00. Other business hours (extended) vary between 6:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 21:00, but most either add or shift 30 minutes to the regular 8-12/16-20 times. In bigger cities such as Buenos Aires, and with the time and money it takes to commute, businesses just use 9-to-6 time.
In Malta, business hours are usually between 9:00 and 12:30 and from 16:00 to 19:00 to enable workmen to return home during the break, have lunch and possibly take a siesta. Due to the shortness of distance between the place of business and their residence, this practice is not uncommon.
Older, pre-teenage children are usually incapable of napping, but acquire the ability to nap as teenagers.[1] Some people sleep the whole time (up to two hours), but most people watch television or take a short 15 to 30 minute nap. In any case, the streets are deserted at the siesta time in siesta-practicing cities.
[edit] Biological need for naps
The timing of sleep in humans depends upon a balance between homeostatic sleep propensity, the need for sleep as a function of the amount of time elapsed since the last adequate sleep episode, and circadian rhythms which determine the ideal timing of a correctly structured and restorative sleep episode. The homeostatic pressure to sleep starts growing upon awakening. The circadian signal for wakefulness starts building in the (late) afternoon. As Harvard sleep researcher Charles Czeisler puts it:
"The circadian system is set up in a beautiful way to override the homeostatic drive for sleep."[2]
Thus, in many people, there is a dip when the drive for sleep has been building for hours and the drive for wakefulness hasn't started yet. This is, again quoting Czeisler, "a great time for a nap." The drive for wakefulness intensifies through the evening, making it difficult to get to sleep 2-3 hours before one's usual bedtime when the wake maintenance zone ends.
In some individuals, postprandial dip, a brief drop in blood glucose levels caused by the body's normal insulin response to a heavy meal, may produce drowsiness after the meal that can encourage a nap. However, the appearance of the dip is primarily circadian as it occurs also in the absence of the meal.
[edit] Siesta in other cultures
Dentist and pharmacist sharing similar business hours in the island of Lipsi, Greece
The concept of a midday nap is also prominent in other tropical or subtropical countries, where the afternoon heat dramatically reduces work productivity. The Washington Post of February 13, 2007 reports at length on studies in Greece that indicate that those who nap have less risk of heart attack. [1]
In South Asia, the idea of a post-lunch nap is common, and the idea of going to sleep after a light massage with mustard oil to induce drowsiness was very popular before industrialization. It was also very popular to consume a light snack during this ritual; it was thought that this practice would make one a better person.[citation needed] In Bangladesh and Indian Bengal, the word which describes the concept is bhat-ghum, literally meaning "rice-sleep" (nap after consuming rice).
Afternoon sleep is also a common habit in China and Taiwan. This is called xiuxi or wushui in Chinese. Its main difference from the siesta is that it lasts between two and three hours. It occurs after the midday meal and is even a constitutional right (article 43, Right to rest). Almost all schools in Mainland China and Taiwan have a half-hour '"nap period'" right after lunch. This is a time when all lights are out and one is not allowed to do anything else than sleep.
Some Japanese offices have special rooms known as napping rooms for their workers to take a nap during lunch break or after overtime work.
In Islam, it is encouraged to take a short nap around 15-30 minutes before the time for Dhuhr prayers, with the intention of doing tahajjud later in the night.
[edit] See also
Sleep
Dream
Power nap
Sleep debt
Segmented sleep
[edit] References
^ Dement, William (1999). The Promise of Sleep. Dell Publishing, 113-115. ISBN 0-440-50901-7.
^ Lambert, Craig, Ph.D. (July-August 2005). "Deep into Sleep. While researchers probe sleep’s functions, sleep itself is becoming a lost art". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
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