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Suffering from workplace fatigue? Take a nap!

Have you ever strolled through your office around mid-day, just after the lunch hour? What you see might shock you. A sea of living dead, the emerging scene is akin to that of an old zombie movie: coworkers trudging along, barely conscious, staring with an empty gaze into their computer monitor, their eyelids mediating between open and shut, their face somewhat gaunt and devoid of meaningful expression. Within this context, sleepiness (or, a case of the “naps” as I call it) is a quickly spreading contagion capable of overtaking even the most diligent of worker. And though various antidotes exist which can be used to stave off its weary effects, none is more effective than sleep.

The truth is, according to a study done at Stanford cited in a recent Businessweek article, approximately “20% [of Americans] suffe[r] from sleepiness during the day.” As one might expect, such sleepiness can have and usually does have a dramatic impact on productivity, something of which employers are beginning to become acutely aware. The article recognizes, in response to persistent sleepiness, many employers have begun to take a proactive approach. That is, “many companies have turned to the humble nap in an attempt to stave off billions in lost productivity each year,” seeing the nap as a simple solution to what is a pervasive problem. Although many of the companies providing this “perk” might be seen as companies which have historically provided avant-garde benefits (i.e. companies far ahead of the curve in terms of the benefits they provide to employees), the material return on this benefit (unlike some others) could be potentially massive.

Though, Dr. Sara Mednick of the UC- San Diego, provides a word of caution to those who might see the almighty nap as a ‘fix-all’ solution, believing “that naps weighted toward different stages of the sleep cycle confer different benefits. ‘If you do physical labor, you need more Stage 2 sleep… If you are doing memorization or verbal work, you need more slow-wave sleep. And if you do creative or visual work, you need more REM sleep.’” Thus, depending on your job, you might need more than a nap—you might require multiple nights of restful sleep! Nevertheless, if you feel as though you are lagging at work, and napping is an approved component of company policy, go to a private break room and take a snooze, or, if your car is rather spacious, go there for a few moments of peaceful R&R.

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