Unfortunately for me, if I fall asleep in the middle of the day, I am going to sleep for 2-3 hours, sometimes longer. Sleeping for less than that is pointless; it can sometimes take me at least 15-20 minutes to get to sleep. And, I'm not sleep-deprived; I get plenty of rest these days, having already burned my body out on all-nighters coding in elementary, middle and high school. I can't do it anymore.
Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
61–70 of 79 posts
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#62Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's probably because you wake up when you're in REM ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_sleep ). The key is to wake up before you hit REM. I wake up after 30 minutes because I usually will hit REM if I nap for longer.
So do you just always get up after 30 minutes, even if you don't fall asleep for 10 or 15? I find the idea of timing the wakeup difficult otherwise. I guess WakeMate or a similar device might help.
It took me a while, but now one of two things happen during my naps:
1) I don't ever fall asleep. So it's mostly just resting and relaxing with my eyes closed.
2) I fall asleep 10 minutes into the 30 minutes and wake exactly one minute before my alarm rings. My body somehow learned to do this, probably because the alarm sound is so painful. But I can tell that I wake up (I'm not sure who "I" is; it's more of a subconscious thing) right before I fall into a REM sleep.
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#64Here's a very simple algorithm to find your optimal napping time.
1. Buy a device from myzeo.com
2. Go to sleep at night, and review the times that you entered deep sleep
3. Take a nap during the day wearing the zeo, then figure out the time you enter deep sleep. That might be N minutes since you turned the device on.
4. Then, nap for a little less than N minutes.
If you determine that you start going into deep sleep at 30 minutes in #3, then you should set your alarm for 26-28 minutes. You'll feel refreshed.
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#65Marginal result - taking an hour out of an 8-hour day is 12.5% drop right there. Hard to make that up in the remaining time, with a small percentage increase in productivity.
Don't get me wrong - I'd love an excuse for a nap! But its guaranteed to burn the hours involved, for a marginal increase in productivity.
Heaven forbid people be more productive when they could be clocking exactly eight hours like good little automatons.
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#66In "The Promise of Sleep", the author talks about naps and getting tired in the afternoon, and his conclusion is that the only reason people get tired in the afternoon (which is when your clock-dependent alerting is at its lowest) is because they are sleep deprived. If you are well rested and don't have sleep debt, you should not get tired at that time. Having consciously tried to get enough sleep over the past 2 yea…
In "SYNC: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order" the author (Strogatz) talks about how in a cave environment, people still take naps a little after noon. People are just as likely to be asleep at 2pm as they are at 4am. Car accidents peak around that time. People fall asleep when their basal temperature is at their lowest, and yup, guess what, people experience a body temperature dip in the late afternoon.
Basically, all the evidence he provides points to a built-in nap time. I, of course, take the physicist's side over the physician's...
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#67Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#68In "The Promise of Sleep", the author talks about naps and getting tired in the afternoon, and his conclusion is that the only reason people get tired in the afternoon (which is when your clock-dependent alerting is at its lowest) is because they are sleep deprived. If you are well rested and don't have sleep debt, you should not get tired at that time. Having consciously tried to get enough sleep over the past 2 yea…
Well even if that's true (n=2 isn't a sample), it doesn't affect the article's claims. The pilots mentioned performed better than the baseline.
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#69Am I the only one who cannot nap? If I take a nap in the middle of the day I wake up feeling worse than when I started.
I'm the same. These guys say 20 minutes is the best, but in that case I think we need to choose a better term than "nap", because I won't be asleep for almost any of that 20 minutes. Rest, perhaps.
I thought I was one of those people too... every time I try to nap it seems to end up with me just lying down and trying to fall asleep for 20 minutes. However, after moving in with my girlfriend she has confirmed that I do indeed manage to fall totally asleep during these attempted naps.
I did some looking around and apparently earlier sleep stages can easily be confused for being awake, especially for light sleepers. It may sound weird, but sleep perception is a funny thing. Some people nap quite easily, yet conclude they did not sleep at all because they never perceive themselves falling asleep or waking up.
Re: Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
So do you just always get up after 30 minutes, even if you don't fall asleep for 10 or 15? I find the idea of timing the wakeup difficult otherwise. I guess WakeMate or a similar device might help.
It took me a while, but now one of two things happen during my naps: 1) I don't ever fall asleep. So it's mostly just resting and relaxing with my eyes closed. 2) I fall asleep 10 minutes into the 30 minutes and wake exactly one minute before my alarm rings. My body somehow learned to do this, probably because the alarm sound is so painful. But I can tell that I wake up (I'm not sure who "I" is; it's more of a subcon…
Cool. I may have to give this a try.