Fancy a nap?
The art of (not) sleeping
On the Tokyo subway, a 50-something businessman plonks his brown leather briefcase on his lap as he collapses into the seat. In seconds, his eyes close, his mouth falls open, and a soft, guttural snore mimics the ‘‘ka thunk’’ percussion of the train on the tracks. A moment later, his whole body begins ‘‘the lean’’. A teenage girl‘s shoulder is the perfect pillow height. Mere inches from its destination, the man’s head jerks up, as his eyes suddenly open wide. He stands abruptly, rubs a hand over his face and exits at his stop. The teenager doesn’t shuffle, snigger or even pause in her texting. No one does. In Japan, this kind of public napping is the norm, and known as ‘‘inemuri’’.
Brigitte Steger, a senior lecturer in Japanese studies at Downing College, Cambridge, explains that inemuri is quite distinct from the Western concept of napping. ‘‘On a certain level, inemuri is not considered sleep at all [in Japan].’’ Written down, the term is composed of two characters: the first meaning is ‘‘to be present’’ and the second is ‘‘sleep’’, so effectively you’re sleeping while remaining present. Confused? In some cases, individuals are just closing their eyes in order to get some rest and privacy, but more often they’re in a very light sleep (half-asleep, if you like), and can easily rouse themselves.
This Japanese approach to recharging may be useful in the West, given the long hours and pressures of modern life, and the increasing number of sleeping problems. It’s hard to tell just how big the issue is in New Zealand, as studies differ in their findings. A 2015 study by University of Michigan scientists and mathematicians, which used smartphone apps to track sleep patterns in 100 countries, found New Zealanders get an average of eight hours and four minutes per night. Some of us get more, and some less. According to research by the World Association of Sleep Medicine, a quarter of New Zealanders have a chronic sleep problem, and 55 per cent say they never wake up feeling refreshed.
In Japan, four in 10 Japanese people sleep less than six hours a night, so they also practice ‘‘inemuri’’. On public transport. In lectures. In parked cars. Even at work desks. In Tokyo, some companies provide separate women’s and men’s nap rooms, with pillows and blankets on the beds. Other offices have official policies permitting workers to snooze at their desks. There are also hair salons that double as ‘‘sleep salons’’, and corporate cafes where tired workers can rent a comfortable chair or even a small bed. Certain forward-thinking companies cover the cost as part of their employees’ health benefits.
In Japan, if an employee attends a meeting dressed correctly, sits up and appears to participate, it’s generally tolerated if their eyes
shut for a brief time. Importantly, though, they must remain just awake enough to participate as required. Surprisingly, in the Japanese workplace, inemuri may even suggest commitment to the job and proof you’re putting in long overtime hours, particularly if you’re a senior male. In Japan’s patriarchal society, it’s less socially acceptable for a young woman to ‘‘inemuri’’ during working hours.
Mina Kitano, a working mother from Tokyo, explains she’s too busy to nap during the day. Later she reveals that, on the train, she will always ‘‘close her eyes’’. Her husband does the same thing at his work station every day, after eating his lunch. He even uses a small pillow designed to fit across his forearm, so he can lean comfortably on his desk. They nap daily, guilt-free, because from their point-of-view they don’t ‘‘sleep’’.
US-based sleep researcher Dr Sara Mednick estimates that between 40-60 per cent of the world’s adult population naps. She says if the rest of us napped, we’d be more efficient and productive at work and home. Indeed, studies have found some benefits of napping include improved memory, creative insight, better complex motor or perceptual skills and muscular precision. It can also play a role in cell repair, hormone maintenance and heart function – and a short nap boosts mood.
You’d think napping would be more common in the West, given the growing sleep deficit. In her book The Sleep Revolution, media mogul Arianna Huffington estimates that ‘‘the total cost of sleep deprivation to the US economy is more than $63 billion in absenteeism and presenteeism’’ (being physically present in the office but not able to work productively). Huffington predicts nap rooms will become as common as meeting rooms.
That may take some time but, increasingly, businesses around the world are encouraging workplace naps as a cheap and practical solution to improving productivity. Big-name companies known for progressive workplaces – including Google, Uber, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Nike – provide nap rooms or sleep pods in some international offices. A company called MetroNaps offers napping facilities to worn-out New Yorkers, and the company PodTime is marketing futuristiclooking sleep pods to offices.
Could this trend ever take off in New Zealand? Right now, it’s tough to track down any companies that encourage naps at work. Neither Google’s nor Uber’s New Zealand offices provide them. Nor does
US-based sleep researcher Dr Sara Mednick estimates that between 40-60 per cent of the world‘s adult population naps.
Executive assistant Jenny Sinclair, who’s worked in offices for more than 45 years, says a regular napper would risk getting in trouble with the boss in New Zealand.
Xero – arguably New Zealand’s most progressive company – and it doesn’t plan to (though technically you can lie down in the wellness room). No one really wants to say why nap rooms aren’t on the agenda, but presumably it’s because ‘‘sleeping on the job’’ has a real stigma in New Zealand. Who wants to be considered lazy or as not pulling their weight?
In your average Kiwi office, napping at work may draw unwelcome attention.
Wellington-based Jenny Sinclair, an executive assistant who’s worked in offices for more than 45 years, says a regular napper would risk getting in trouble with the boss. ‘‘If I found someone napping at their desk, even in their lunch break, I’d be concerned and check if they were OK because it’s not the norm.’’ She recalls one exhausted senior manager who took a brief nap on his office floor. He awoke to find worried colleagues about to administer first aid and call an ambulance.
There are covert opportunities to nap. Many offices have a sick bay or ‘‘wellness room’’ with a bed and lockable door. Hardly a purpose-built nap room, but better than an office floor. However, in larger offices this room may be all that’s available for dozens, even hundreds, of employees. It’s likely you’ll be locked out – or sharing the space.
Dr Alex Bartle, a leading sleep expert and the medical director of New Zealand’s 10 Sleep Well
Clinics, says he would encourage companies to provide nap rooms for employees – especially businesses that run shift-work (and especially overnight). ‘‘To encourage napping in their breaks, not while working! Napping has become increasingly recognised as being a useful activity to improve our functioning during the day. A brief 15-20-minute nap has been shown to be extremely restorative, and improves both mental and emotional function. However, ideally this would be unnecessary if our night-time sleep was better managed with both improved quality and length of sleep.’’
In March, the inaugural New Zealand Productivity Week (yes, that’s a thing) was run by business.govt.nz with tips from the new New Zealand Business Performance Panel. The week’s tagline was ‘‘work smarter, not harder’’.
Could the panel encourage workplaces to provide nap rooms? ‘‘The issue of sleep deprivation is not an area of expertise for us,’’ says business.govt.nz stakeholder advisor Eric Janse van Rensburg. ‘‘However, stress on business owners and their employees is of real concern to us. We encourage all workplaces to consider ways they can improve their productivity and ‘work smarter not harder’.’’
Whether or not businesses come on board, it’s doubtful whether New Zealanders will ever feel comfortable napping in public. Tokyo stay-at-home mum Hitomi Tanaka says the Japanese can nap in public ‘‘because it’s so safe here’’. Japan has one of the world’s lowest crime rates. Even though New Zealand’s crime rate is low compared to many other countries, some of us might be too worried about a bag snatcher to inemuri in public. Not only that, but in Japan you become almost invisible when you nap, so it’s unlikely you’ll wake up to find strangers laughing at your expense. The notion of being ridiculed will naturally put a lot of Kiwis off public napping.
Japanese soccer coach Takashi Matsumura (Matchan) has a physically demanding job, so to recharge he will slip in inemuri on public transport. Matchan, who spent many years living in New Zealand, has his own explanation for why the Japanese can inemuri while New Zealanders generally don’t.
‘‘Napping is in our genes,’’ he says, only halfjoking. ‘‘We can’t help it.’’
Indeed, Japanese anthropologist Dr Brigitte Steger explains inemuri may be a behaviour learned from birth. It’s a Japanese cultural norm for parents to co-sleep with young children until they are at least school age. This could partly explain why, later in life, many Japanese say they often sleep better in company than alone and why inemuri is so common.
If napping is a learned behaviour, can anyone learn it? ‘‘You can learn how to eat well and exercise well,’’ says US sleep researcher Dr Sara Mednick, author of the book Take a Nap! Change
Your Life. ‘‘You can also learn to nap well.’’ She recommends finding a place where you feel safe and relaxed. (Outside of Japan, this may exclude most public spots.) ‘‘A lot of people nap in their cars.’’ Body temperature drops during sleep, so wear an extra layer. Then work on quieting the mind – perhaps through a meditation track – and set an alarm for around 20-30 minutes.
Ninety minutes is the maximum for a daytime nap in order to avoid waking up feeling groggy.
Perhaps we could start asking our employers to provide a nap room so that, next time your eyelids droop, you can do as the Japanese do. Explain you’re not being lazy, but trying to make yourself healthier and more productive.
Who could possibly object to that?