|
|
WAKE UP TO
CATNAP BENEFITS
|
| Dozing
off for a few minutes may not be bad idea after all,
suggests new research |
Zzzzzz.... Mmm? Sorry, I must have nodded off. Not a bad thing, actually - in fact I shouldn’t be apologising at all. You see, it’s “National Nap at Work Week” here, a good excuse to celebrate one of the most delicious antidotes to an overpacked schedule: the power nap.
JFK and Ronald Reagan were apparently big catnappers. So, too, Edison and Einstein, Brahms and da Vinci.
Napoleon dozed on the battlefield, while Winston Churchill napped throughout World War II, enthusing that a good afternoon snooze created two days out of one.
So we’re in illustrious company. Dozing is definitely not just for pensioners and babies. In fact, sleep experts seem to believe that more and more of us should try to power down for a few minutes at work every day. They point to a large body of research suggesting that the catnap can improve productivity and boost morale in a bleary-eyed society.
Surveys consistently indicate that people feel sleep deprived. A poll this week for Britain’s GMTV found two-thirds of people said they had trouble sleeping, and 4 in 5 said they do not feel refreshed after a night’s sleep. Only 19% said they got the recommended eight hours per night.
On average, people sleep for 90 minutes less each night than their forebears did a century ago, according to Stanford University research. Blame multichannel TV, shiftwork, international travel, caffeine, or the always-on working culture. Or just restless children. “I have a real down period in the afternoon; by 2 or 3 I’m flagging,” says Claire Walker, a working mom who’s normally up before dawn and often still working late at night. She set up a quiet room at her South London consultancy, Firefly, with dim lighting, a big leather chair like the recliners used by dentists, and a set of headphones. People duck in at different times of the day, but not for long, she says. “A quick blast is a way to re-energize for the rest of day.”
Sleep experts say deep, lengthy slumber in the middle of the day can prove counterproductive and create an effect akin to jet lag. Salvador Dali apparently guarded against this by napping with a spoon in his hand, held above a metal bowl. As he descended deeper into the surreal world of REM slumber, the spoon would clatter into the bowl, waking him up.
Some are beginning to catch on. Long-haul British Airways pilots are encouraged to rest in the air to make them more alert on landing. Doctors are calling for nap rooms to help them through night shifts. Britain’s round-the-world yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur seems to survive on napping alone while at sea.
“We know from personal experience that people who work in the city work very long hours and are exhausted a lot of the time,” says Nigel Mitchell, a founder of the company that is pioneering the Zzed Sheds, which he says are used mainly from late morning through the afternoon. “If you get to your desk at 6 in morning, by 11 o’clock you are ready to shut your eyes for half an hour.”
The idea has caught on in at least a few European cities. MetroNaps pods debuted at Copenhagen airport last year, and Barcelona businessman Federico Busquets is doing brisk business in Spain with his napping-parlor franchise. Yet it’s one thing to nap in a private club with sleep pods, and quite another to
doze at work.
—Excerpted from Christian Science Monitor
|
|
|
|
May 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
