Employers wake up to benefits of napping
You could hear the collective sighs of droopy-eyed workers and students this week when a B.C. college announced it had introduced a “nap room” on campus.
The universal response on social media seemed to be: “Why can’t we have one of those?”
It appears more school administrators and employers are warming to the idea of fluffing pillows for weary heads during the day.
In addition to the aforementioned B.C. Institute of Technology, which now converts a racquetball court into a 10-mattress nap room four afternoons a week, the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University have set aside spaces for students to recharge on sleeping pads or in lounge chairs between classes.
In the corporate world, Google, Hootsuite and other IT firms have ditched the yousnooze-you- lose mentality and made nap rooms available to employees, or in the case of Google, cocoon- like “nap pods” that reportedly play ambient sounds to help staff drift off to sleep.
The trend is welcome news to Kimberly Cote, a psychology professor and director of the Brock University sleep-research laboratory in St. Catharines, Ont.
It is clear we’re a sleepdeprived society, she said. Yet, for too long, there’s been a prevailing attitude among bosses that equates sleeping on the job with laziness.
“Our culture hasn’t come up to speed with what the science knows,” she said. Instead of being upset, “you should tiptoe past your ( sleeping) employee’s door.”
Naps don’t need to be long, the professor said. Fifteen or 20 minutes is all it takes to boost productivity and improve overall mood. Employers just need to ensure they allot a bit of time for employees to recover from their naps; it’s not realistic to expect them to jump back into work right away.
But one Toronto company, AskforTask.com, says it found giving workers a bit of shuteye hindered, rather than helped, productivity.
It was 2013 and the startup was in “hyper-aggressive” mode to build its product, said Nabeel Mushtaq, chief product officer. Developers were working extremely long hours.
So the company decided to convert a room into a nap space. But some employees ended up sleeping for hours, he said. Others found themselves so groggy after waking up — even after short naps — that they were more focused on getting caffeine hits than getting back to work.
Mushtaq said the company tried implementing a 15-minute time limit on naps, but after a few weeks they found that productivity had plummeted by about 30 per cent. So they replaced the nap room with an “innovation lounge,” a room with soft lighting, reclining chairs and relaxing music where workers could unplug and unwind for a bit — just not snooze. Productivity rebounded. Still, scientific evidence supporting midday naps at work seems to be growing. A University of Michigan study last year found that not only does napping reduce fatigue, it also helps with “emotional control.” Those who took naps reported a decrease in impulsive behaviour and increased tolerance for frustration.
Emerging from a 15-minute snooze in the new BCIT nap room Thursday, student Hannah Clark said the vinyl mattress was “perfectly adequate” and the pillow was more comfortable than her own at home.
All too often, students end up dozing in class, she said.
“To have the opportunity to go somewhere and lie down and close your eyes and not be criticized, it doesn’t make you feel as bad,” she said.