Difficult nights, insomnia, exhausting daily commutes, night work… there are many reasons why you might be tired at work. If coffee, a chocolate bar or energy drink are no longer enough, the time may have come to consider the benefits of having a nap during the day. Some brief tips so you can dare to take the step, although the subject is still taboo in business.
Sleep, more sleep, always sleep!
Sleep is essential for concentration, humour, productivity… in short, subjects that are very sensitive in business. Although 59% of people interviewed in a study conducted by Professor Morin (Université Laval) said that they were short of sleep, 71% of them said they gave up this element first when they were short of time. A six-hour night’s sleep here, another at five hours there, and you have a sleep deficit that could become detrimental to you, and the company, with non-trivial macroeconomic consequences: according to the Rand Corporation, in the United States the sleep deficit represented a cost of $411 billion in 2016. On the individual level, there are also pernicious effects – going without sleep for 17 hours, your concentration is similar to that of a person with 0.5 grams of alcohol per litre of blood. This is not the kind of state that your employer would appreciate for very long!
Taboo subject that is tending to become more popular
There are subjects that are taboo in business, and that of napping is one of them: “waste of time” for some, “laziness or idleness” for others. You are then forced to take a nap away from the eyes of colleagues, in your car or in the bathroom – which is not what you want to do. From the employer’s side, this is not a winner either – even though nearly 50% of employers, according to a study by Robert Half conducted in 2014, think it is conceivable to take a nap at work, very few of them offer it to their emploiyees. It’s a question of priorities – some of them prefer to offer corporate day cares, sports rooms, yoga workshops – or a mentality – start-ups or SMEs are more receptive than large corporations with their deeply-rooted hierarchical system.
To each his own way of resting
What are your solutions? Convincing your employer, hoping that a workplace doctor recommends a calm space or offers rest outside the company. For several years, businesses have developed or provided their offer of services around a restorative nap. So you can leave your colleague at 12:45 and return some 30 minutes later. In the meanwhile, you will be asleep in a cabin made available with a spa with a light play promoting sleep and natural waking, dozing off in a hammock hanging from the building’s roof or resting in a “zen” room rented by the minute. Indeed, everything is a matter of minutes: while naps of 10 to 20 minutes (improving alertness) or 60 minutes are beneficial, forget one of 30 minutes (inertia on awakening) or 90 minutes (unhappy boss for sure!).
Some people think that overcoming the prejudices about taking a nap at work could well take a generation. So to accelerate the movement, should this obligation be written into the constitution, as it is in China? This may also take a long time…