For those wondering how to nap at the office and not get hauled into the managers office for sleeping on the job, I paraphrase a tip from Scott Adams (Dilbert):
"Grab a handful of paperclips and find an office/meeting room. Shut the door and lie down on the ground with your feet against the door. Sprinkle the paperclips in front of you. Now have a nap.
If someone tries to enter the room, the door will hit your feet. This will naturally cause them to pause (and stops them entering), it wakes you up and lets you reach for the paperclips which gives you a ready excuse ("Oh sorry, I was just picking up the paperclips")"
i wanted to share my experience how i napped at work in a big company but found this far more interesting. i just went outside and slept in a car. in a big company noone notices you if everything works, and it did because i was good worker ;)
I cannot overstate how much power naps have improved my life. I started doing them regularly about seven years ago and have been recommending them to everyone I can since. Napping makes me happier, more alert, and way more productive.
Ditto. For me, the 20 minute investment in a post-lunch nap pays back manyfold in increased productivity (to say nothing of health and general well-being) for the rest of the day.
Finding a place to nap in an office an environment can be tricky, but if you start thinking of your nap as an important work tool and not an embarrassing indulgence, you can usually find a way to make it work. Drop a few bucks on a good pillow, blanket, sleep mask, and/or white-noise headphones -- whatever's important for you -- to keep at your desk. (For me, the sleep mask is critical. YMMV.) Get creative with your sleep position -- couches are great, but I've made it work lying on the floor with my feet up on my office chair (suitably chocked so it won't roll away). The key point is, don't be afraid to ask the work environment to adapt to your nap, rather than vice versa.
Can you and other nappers here explain how you are able to find somewhere to nap in a busy office environment (and your car isn't available)? For me, lying on the floor would be far too noisy with hundreds of PCs humming away and I would be at constant risk of being stepped on by my colleagues.
Here is a way to generate simple, wonderful pink noise (with a slight tremolo) from the commandline, if you have sox installed. It somewhat mimics the sounds of waves on a beach - I find it very relaxing.
A nice side affect (and the reason I played around with it originally) is that it helps mask tinnitus when it gets too annoying (I find that if tinnitus flares up too loud, it can make it more difficult to fall asleep).
The lark and owl distinction has been driving me crazy since I thought about my sleeping habits. I spent about 2 years with completely self-determined sleep (I even collected sleep data) and do not even approximately fit into those schemes. I alternate between a lot of sleep and no sleep over the course of 10 days continually shifting my waking hours into the night until I reset. Some people claim that this would be unhealthy, but (measured by introspection) I felt good and haven't been sick during that time. And I have spoken to some people that feel similar.
While all this is not based on anything that can withstand analysis, it adds a strange flavor to advice when it starts with broad categories which seem not entirely correct.
Same here. I've been allowing myself to sleep pretty much whenever I feel like it for the past several months, and I don't appear to have any sleep pattern. Sometimes I sleep 3 or 4 hours, and wake up feeling well-rested and ready to get back to work; other times I'll sleep 12 hours at a stretch. It's irrespective of the 24-hour day. After reading your comment, I'm going to start logging my sleep, to see if there's any noticeable pattern. Thanks.
I've tried this so many times but I just can't fall asleep in the middle of the day unless I'm seriously exhausted. Anyone out there able to beat the "can't fall asleep unless conditions are perfect" curse?
What worked for me was to build up gradually over time. I started only napping when I was very tired, in my bed, with the lights off. Even then it took practice before my body learned to fall asleep in a reasonable amount of time.
Then I started napping with the lights on, and then when I wasn't super tired.
Today, I can fall asleep quickly in a chair in a noisy office.
I've really struggled with sleep schedules recently (varying from getting up at 6am to 3pm within a week, due to various late-night engagements whilst trying to get up earlier).
I have found that setting an alarm and counting down from 10 to force myself out of bed unnaturally early has left me feeling really awake once showered and very dozy around mid-day. Time will tell if this is sustainable but it feels pretty amazing right now, far more productive hours (in amount and intensity) than when I was sleeping 8-9hours a night.
Please notice that it also depends on the length of your nap. I do 20 minutes naps and you don't fall asleep in those. Still it's enough to change your brain wave and to get the benefits of the nap.
Also, as you do it every day at the same time, your body gets used to it and you nap faster.
The 'sleep' part is not actually what's important. Just lie down in a quiet, dark place and close your eyes for 20 minutes, and you will gain a large portion of the same benefits that you'd have gained if you actually fell asleep.
I can fall asleep at pretty much any given hour of the day... unless it is the actual time in the evening at which I should go to bed. I had a terrible case of getting a "second wind" rush at night around midnight and even worse after 3 or 4 am.
Twenty minute naps leave me in a horrid state of disarray. It takes me about an hour to recover from the grogginess, so I tend to stay as far away from them as possible. I've experimented with time and location variations, but never with any success. It makes me sad, because I know tons of people who work naps into their day with fantastic results.
This was a problem for me, too. I found that naps over 16 minutes knock me out as you describe, naps under leave me very refreshed and alert. I set my alarm for 16m in a quiet environment, 17m if I'm in a noisier environment or heightened state to give me a little extra time to fall asleep. Maybe some experimentation will help you find a time that works, good luck.
Other sources I've read suggest that around 15 minutes of sleep is optimal, and going over puts you into a different phase of sleep. Perhaps you have an easier time falling asleep than others.
When I try to nap, I'm pretty sure it takes ~5 minutes to doze off usually, but sometimes even more than that.
Each sleep cycle takes 90-110 minutes. Each cycle has 5 steps.
So each step takes about 20 minutes. But if your cycle takes 90 minutes your first step will take about 18 minutes. So if you wake up after 20 minutes you will be in the first 2 minutes of the next step. And that's a bad moment to wake up.
As people already noticed, you have to play a little bit with the timing.
That's a well known rule of thumb: If you can fall asleep, but wake up groggy, decrease your total napping time by one or two minutes until you reach the spot where it works for you. 20-25 minutes is what you start off with, but the more you learn to fall asleep quickly, the further you have to chop away from that alarm clock to have it work.
Sadly, here in Brazil when I tell someone that I need a nap in the afternoon to be really productive almost everyone says "You are lazy" or something like that. I have worked in a single company that I had some time to take a 15-20 minutes nap in the afternoon and the boost in my productivity was simply outstanding.
My Dad always took powernaps and still does. He has the ability to sit down in just about any reasonably comfortable chair, and go to sleep on command. He can then wake up 5, 15, or 30 minutes later and be fully alert. Noise, light, temperature - doesn't worry him.
He laughs about it but it's got to be a skill built up over years by practicing.
The one trick he did teach me for a mid-day nap was to lie on your back on the floor and put your legs up on a chair (calf muscles on the seat, feet against the backrest). For some reason it really seems to help, I assume it's circulation related.
I'm glad that this provides scientific justification for that napping danger zone between 45 and 90 minutes. Having taken naps that have ended in that precarious time span, I can attest that it feels like you're worse off than when you started.
There's been so much well-publicized research on the positive impact of sleep on performance, and hugely detrimental effect of not getting enough sleep.
Why do so many companies still force their employees to work with so little sleep? Why do they still frown at sleeping on the job? And why don't more of them provide cots, sofas and showers, when they can easily afford them?
For decades, some of the more enlightened companies have been providing in-company cafeterias, laundry, fridges and microwaves in office kitchens, and other amenities so that employees don't feel like they need to leave the workplace as much. You'd think these companies would recognize that providing sleeping facilities is the next logical step. Why don't they?
The obvious answer: Employees who need extra sleep during the day should simply sleep longer during the night so they won't need to sleep while they're at work. At least, that's the typical view of the employer.
There is so much research available on how to make your employees work better, more efficient, how to make them happier, healthier, more productive, how to provide a positive team environment etc but still the majority of companies treat employees more like machines and by the rules of lowest-level production-line workers building Ford T model parts back in the beginning of the 20th century...
Has anyone ever used phone apps that purport to wake you up at the right time by using the accelerometer to detect how much you're moving in your sleep?
I've used this but only for a few times because it requires the phone to be activated all night, which makes it quite warm in the morning. But it seemed to make me less groggy...but I can't tell if that's just confirmation bias...
I haven't thought of using it for just 45 min spans though
Not everyone sleeps in the same way. After a doctor suggested I do an overnight sleep study, I found out that I often reach REM within 5 to 10 minutes.
Taking even a 15 minute nap in my car right after lunch completely boosts my creative thinking and problem solving ability.
I get the same results out of meditation, but if im going out at night or have to be at an event, i like taking a 30-40 min nap before getting ready, makes me be back to 100% till late.
I've found 15-20 minutes naps after having lunch, to be amazing. I can wake up really quickly and being fully alert to keep working, without any drowsiness or performance hits.
I wish I could wake up with the same mood in the morning. I find it really hard to even wake up without putting the alarm in snooze at least twice.
It amazes me that people can "nap". I can only nap when extremely tired, and at that point, I'm so behind on sleep that 20 minutes won't do a thing. I'll be lucky to wake up, and if I do, I'll be just as groggy. :)
I usually get one nap a week on Sunday afternoons for about 3 hours. I find that I feel more creative and ambitious in the period after this nap than at any other time in the week. While it is feasible to add one more day to my nap schedule, I have yet to do it. I am rather much looking forward to when my schedule will allow for a daily nap.
I am lucky: I work in the village I grew up in. When I am too tired I tell my boss: "I am not productive, I am going home to sleep, I will work the remaining hours of the day at home after I wake up." My bed is then a 3 minute bicycle ride away.
On a more helpful note: I learned how to nap by having siesta when I helped someone build a house in the South of France. A mid-day nap there was common, even for those in the public sector. They reasoned that in summer it was just too hot too work.
I would do my napping where ever I'd like: the grass, a garden chair, a leather sofa. It took about 2 weeks to actually "get" it, but it did my body good. Sometimes I skipped a day because I wanted to read or w/e, but I'd still take my moment of rest.
On a real note, napping changed my life. And when I had my own business, it really helped productivity to have a nap in the middle of the day. Now I work for the machine, and naps are unfortunately not allowed.
[+] [-] tobtoh|14 years ago|reply
"Grab a handful of paperclips and find an office/meeting room. Shut the door and lie down on the ground with your feet against the door. Sprinkle the paperclips in front of you. Now have a nap.
If someone tries to enter the room, the door will hit your feet. This will naturally cause them to pause (and stops them entering), it wakes you up and lets you reach for the paperclips which gives you a ready excuse ("Oh sorry, I was just picking up the paperclips")"
:)
[+] [-] fedd|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] obiterdictum|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] josefresco|14 years ago|reply
/end lame joke
[+] [-] cpayne624|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicholasjbs|14 years ago|reply
A shameless plug: I wrote a post about how I learned to nap here: http://unschooled.org/2011/05/how-i-nap
[+] [-] snewman|14 years ago|reply
Finding a place to nap in an office an environment can be tricky, but if you start thinking of your nap as an important work tool and not an embarrassing indulgence, you can usually find a way to make it work. Drop a few bucks on a good pillow, blanket, sleep mask, and/or white-noise headphones -- whatever's important for you -- to keep at your desk. (For me, the sleep mask is critical. YMMV.) Get creative with your sleep position -- couches are great, but I've made it work lying on the floor with my feet up on my office chair (suitably chocked so it won't roll away). The key point is, don't be afraid to ask the work environment to adapt to your nap, rather than vice versa.
[+] [-] spuz|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kellishaver|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] palebluedot|14 years ago|reply
A nice side affect (and the reason I played around with it originally) is that it helps mask tinnitus when it gets too annoying (I find that if tinnitus flares up too loud, it can make it more difficult to fall asleep).
The cmdline:
[+] [-] klipt|14 years ago|reply
Or for sticking on your mp3 player, http://174.36.223.28/audio/RainyMood.ogg
[+] [-] shmerl|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Serentiynow|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philf|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Skeletor|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmr_|14 years ago|reply
While all this is not based on anything that can withstand analysis, it adds a strange flavor to advice when it starts with broad categories which seem not entirely correct.
[+] [-] botker|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omgsean|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicholasjbs|14 years ago|reply
Then I started napping with the lights on, and then when I wasn't super tired.
Today, I can fall asleep quickly in a chair in a noisy office.
[+] [-] fauldsh|14 years ago|reply
I have found that setting an alarm and counting down from 10 to force myself out of bed unnaturally early has left me feeling really awake once showered and very dozy around mid-day. Time will tell if this is sustainable but it feels pretty amazing right now, far more productive hours (in amount and intensity) than when I was sleeping 8-9hours a night.
[+] [-] DeusExMachina|14 years ago|reply
Also, as you do it every day at the same time, your body gets used to it and you nap faster.
[+] [-] gwern|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CamperBob|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kahawe|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jjcm|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Harkins|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eric-hu|14 years ago|reply
When I try to nap, I'm pretty sure it takes ~5 minutes to doze off usually, but sometimes even more than that.
[+] [-] tintin|14 years ago|reply
As people already noticed, you have to play a little bit with the timing.
[+] [-] skore|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pacomerh|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juliano_q|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crazygringo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Edootjuh|14 years ago|reply
- Obviously you can set a radio between channels, but I often don't have a radio in the room but do have a computer, so...
- In linux, if you have ALSA installed, you can type
in the console, or for OSS- On the internet, there's http://simplynoise.com/
[+] [-] brc|14 years ago|reply
He laughs about it but it's got to be a skill built up over years by practicing.
The one trick he did teach me for a mid-day nap was to lie on your back on the floor and put your legs up on a chair (calf muscles on the seat, feet against the backrest). For some reason it really seems to help, I assume it's circulation related.
[+] [-] danko|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sliverstorm|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnosis|14 years ago|reply
Why do so many companies still force their employees to work with so little sleep? Why do they still frown at sleeping on the job? And why don't more of them provide cots, sofas and showers, when they can easily afford them?
For decades, some of the more enlightened companies have been providing in-company cafeterias, laundry, fridges and microwaves in office kitchens, and other amenities so that employees don't feel like they need to leave the workplace as much. You'd think these companies would recognize that providing sleeping facilities is the next logical step. Why don't they?
[+] [-] glanch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kahawe|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danso|14 years ago|reply
Example: http://www.sleepcycle.com/
I've used this but only for a few times because it requires the phone to be activated all night, which makes it quite warm in the morning. But it seemed to make me less groggy...but I can't tell if that's just confirmation bias...
I haven't thought of using it for just 45 min spans though
[+] [-] kcima|14 years ago|reply
Taking even a 15 minute nap in my car right after lunch completely boosts my creative thinking and problem solving ability.
[+] [-] j45|14 years ago|reply
Where it mentions a nap makes stage 2 sleep, I know my ability to nap can depend on how quickly I can fall asleep.
I've found meditating for 5-10 minutes even at my desk offers a similar result to napping, without the nap-hangover/grogginess.
The feeling? Like when we wake up, fresh, clear minded, focused, settled and ready to go.
[+] [-] nvk|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] janus|14 years ago|reply
I wish I could wake up with the same mood in the morning. I find it really hard to even wake up without putting the alarm in snooze at least twice.
[+] [-] darylteo|14 years ago|reply
I set my alarms at 8, and I snooze it till 8:30.
[+] [-] lawnchair_larry|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zafka|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adnam|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BasDirks|14 years ago|reply
On a more helpful note: I learned how to nap by having siesta when I helped someone build a house in the South of France. A mid-day nap there was common, even for those in the public sector. They reasoned that in summer it was just too hot too work.
I would do my napping where ever I'd like: the grass, a garden chair, a leather sofa. It took about 2 weeks to actually "get" it, but it did my body good. Sometimes I skipped a day because I wanted to read or w/e, but I'd still take my moment of rest.
[+] [-] thetrendycyborg|14 years ago|reply
On a real note, napping changed my life. And when I had my own business, it really helped productivity to have a nap in the middle of the day. Now I work for the machine, and naps are unfortunately not allowed.