Editorial: Nappin’ to stay relevant

Imagine if employees took 20 minutes out of the time they waste Facebook creeping and reading… Imagine if employees took 20 minutes out of the time they waste Facebook creeping and reading Perez Hilton and instead took a brief power nap. According to the Huffington Post, they’d be more productive.

In a report, “Comparing the benefits of caffeine, naps and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory,” former Harvard researcher Sara Mednick finds that naps enhance alertness, attention, some forms of memory and performance on procedural skills.

The best time for a nap, reports the Huffington Post, is between 1 and 3 p.m. In addition, the nap should not be longer than 30 minutes, to prevent the napper from entering the deeper stages of sleep.

Whereas the research behind the benefits of short naps has been around for a while, companies haven’t been too quick to encourage employee napping, and employees are frequently reluctant to accept the efforts companies do make. The Huffington Post reports that “a growing number, including Google, provide napping pods and renewal rooms. That’s a great first step, but it’s scarcely the norm to use them.”

The Pitt News is always down for a little snooze. We acknowledge that people aren’t productive 100 percent of the time they are on the clock. In addition, we understand that hours of continuous work can take a toll.

Whereas we love naps and the idea of napping on the job, there are a couple of issues with this extremely attractive idea.

First is the problem of where people should nap. If your workplace doesn’t have napping pods like Google, or enough couches for everyone, perhaps a yoga mat on the floor would suffice.

But some might not be comfortable with sleeping in public anyway. Keep in mind you’re in a professional(ish) setting and not in a situation where you’re the first to fall asleep at a slumber party, but there’s always the risk of someone Sharpie-ing male genitalia on your face.

Then there’s always the problem that whereas naps leave you feeling refreshed, they also leave you not looking so fresh. Bed head — or desk head — could be troublesome, as well as wrinkled clothing and smeared mascara.

Despite these miniscule setbacks, we think companies should still consider naps as a production-boosting option.

We think longer “European style” lunch breaks would provide similar benefits to nap breaks, or even the perfect opportunity for a quick siesta. A shorter workweek could also be an option. Whereas the 35-hour workweek is no longer imposed in France, it’s still the “reference length for the French workweek,” according to Time Magazine.

Even though all this might sound a little lazy, the Huffington Post reports that “it’s not the number of hours people work that determines the value they create, but rather the energy they’re capable of bringing to whatever hours they work.”

We agree.

Note: No naps were taken during the production of this editorial.