Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Take Naps at Work

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 282 posts

Re: Take Naps at Work

#71

Post by torrent-of-ions »

rectang wrote: post #13

For the last 8 years at work, I napped for 12-40 minutes basically every afternoon. I headed out into the parking lot and slept in the back of my car. (I bought the model I own after testing to make sure the back was nappable.) My most productive, creative time was the hour or two in the late afternoon following the nap. All my co-workers knew the deal and so did my boss. Nobody else napped, but my napping was normal…

What car do you have? I tried to nap in the back of my Civic once, but it wasn't successful. Partly I felt self conscious that someone might come near my car and see me, though.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#72

Post by samsonradu »

wereHamster wrote: post #18
rectang wrote: post #13

For the last 8 years at work, I napped for 12-40 minutes basically every afternoon. I headed out into the parking lot and slept in the back of my car. (I bought the model I own after testing to make sure the back was nappable.) My most productive, creative time was the hour or two in the late afternoon following the nap. All my co-workers knew the deal and so did my boss. Nobody else napped, but my napping was normal…

If your boss and coworkers new about it, why didn't they provide you with space inside the building to take naps? It's stupid having to walk outside and nap in your car. Google has special quiet rooms where people can go take naps and relax during the day.

Google being Google is a bit different, but I'm sure there are a lot of companies where some low-productive employees who've been checking Facebook all day will point fingers at you for sleeping during the butt-sit hours.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#73

Post by schtitt »

Scarblac wrote: post #63
yokisan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like if you're so tired while you're at work that you actually want to take a nap, then maybe there is another underlying problem. There is: tiredness. Often, but not always, due to lack of sleep. A nap is the solution. If you need 8 glasses of water a day to be at peak-performance but for whatever reason only manage to drink 7 in the morning, why not have that final glass sometime during the day? Same wit…

But it's not normal for adults to sleep so badly that you need naps during the day, apart from having very young kids. So other than that I'd say there may well be an underlying problem.

If you could help me and 25% of everyone [1] figure out that underlying problem, we would be super grateful!

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/articles/sleepd...

Re: Take Naps at Work

#74

Post by xiaoma »

daxfohl wrote: post #20

Better: eat less lunch. Ever since I've started having no more than a moderate bowl of low-cal (not "diet", just not "vitamix'd pizza") soup, the second half of the day is just as productive as the first. If I eat enough for a food coma, I go home; I'd provide no useful anything for the rest of the day, nap or no, so no sense hiding it by merely being around.

I'm not sure that is better. Human circadian rhythms are naturally biphasic. Even if you went on a complete water fast, it's doubtful you'd completely eliminate the secondary one.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#75

Post by freeflight »

daxfohl wrote: post #20

Better: eat less lunch. Ever since I've started having no more than a moderate bowl of low-cal (not "diet", just not "vitamix'd pizza") soup, the second half of the day is just as productive as the first. If I eat enough for a food coma, I go home; I'd provide no useful anything for the rest of the day, nap or no, so no sense hiding it by merely being around.

That's because digesting food also takes some effort for your body. If you eat a big lunch/food that's hard to digest, you will make that infamous noon sleepiness just that much worse as your body will have to spend energy dealing with all the food in your belly in addition to keeping you awake.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#76

Post by xiaoma »

samsonradu wrote: post #68
beilabs wrote: post #57

When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we'd have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break. Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system. No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people. Definitely something I approve of; I've a small m…

Curious if you were able to do the same? From what I've seen asians have this ability to pretty much sleep anywhere , planes, trains, buses anything. The crappy chairs and noisy engines don't seem to bother them. I don't think I could ever fall asleep in the lunch break, the morning coffee and the light outside doesn't let my brain go off. EDIT I really don't mean to offend anyone, just curious whether the ability to…

I wouldn't say it's about Asia so much as Anglophones are notable for not taking siestas. Aside from China, it's pretty common in much of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Latin America.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#77

Post by ship_it »

samsonradu wrote: post #68
beilabs wrote: post #57

When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we'd have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break. Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system. No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people. Definitely something I approve of; I've a small m…

Curious if you were able to do the same? From what I've seen asians have this ability to pretty much sleep anywhere , planes, trains, buses anything. The crappy chairs and noisy engines don't seem to bother them. I don't think I could ever fall asleep in the lunch break, the morning coffee and the light outside doesn't let my brain go off. EDIT I really don't mean to offend anyone, just curious whether the ability to…

That is called a stereotype judgment.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#78

Post by freeflight »

I'm really envious of people who are actually able to take naps because it just doesn't work for me. By the time I actually "phase out", for which I need at least like 20-30 minutes, most of my lunch break would already be over, resulting in me waking up all groggy and irritated.

Re: Take Naps at Work

#79

Post by beilabs »

samsonradu wrote: post #68
beilabs wrote: post #57

When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we'd have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break. Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system. No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people. Definitely something I approve of; I've a small m…

Curious if you were able to do the same? From what I've seen asians have this ability to pretty much sleep anywhere , planes, trains, buses anything. The crappy chairs and noisy engines don't seem to bother them. I don't think I could ever fall asleep in the lunch break, the morning coffee and the light outside doesn't let my brain go off. EDIT I really don't mean to offend anyone, just curious whether the ability to…

I took advantage of eating out in the local eateries and avoided the canteen food; it was rare enough that I was back 15 minutes before I was meant to. :D

Re: Take Naps at Work

#80

Post by hrktb »

wereHamster wrote: post #18
rectang wrote: post #13

For the last 8 years at work, I napped for 12-40 minutes basically every afternoon. I headed out into the parking lot and slept in the back of my car. (I bought the model I own after testing to make sure the back was nappable.) My most productive, creative time was the hour or two in the late afternoon following the nap. All my co-workers knew the deal and so did my boss. Nobody else napped, but my napping was normal…

If your boss and coworkers new about it, why didn't they provide you with space inside the building to take naps? It's stupid having to walk outside and nap in your car. Google has special quiet rooms where people can go take naps and relax during the day.

I think quiet rooms or rest spaces are difficult to maintain when there's too few people using them.

At one company it ended up being a temporary closet room with printer supply and all kind of stuff people randomly tossed in to clear the way. At my current company there's so few people using it it smells dusty and closeted to the point it's unusable to relax.

ad-hoc places worked better for me, like small meeting rooms that are unused at noon, actual storage rooms that are actually very clean and tidy compared to temporary ones, or even a park bench when weather is nice enough

Post reply on HN