How power naps at workplace can make you a better employee!- A social media analysis

Contents

Share

Probably everyone, at some point of time, has faced a lazy, dozy or a ‘yawny’ feeling post-lunch, a feeling when you really wish you could find a pillow somewhere around!
Well, it’s completely fine to feel sleepy in the afternoon; a sign that your body needs rest for sometime so that it can start afresh.  But most of us neglect this need and continue with work because it might be embarrassing to doze off when your boss is watching you. There are dozens of medical studies that show, a power nap of 20-30 minutes during afternoons is a good practice to increase productivity, fight fatigue, relieve stress, boost memory, enhance performance, improve learning ability and most importantly brighten up one’s mood. Research also suggests that ‘sleeping’ is a much better way in boosting one’s energy rather than sipping a cup of coffee.
Imagine a situation when you are in a meeting room in your office and you are surrounded by your colleagues, a serious discussion is going on; while you are trying hard to keep your eyes open!
not

Now since you were dozing the whole time you missed out on what was going on. Well this might lead you to a very grave situation as well.
Now imagine another scenario where you just had a nap and are feeling fresh and energised; charged up for the rest of the day; you walk into the meeting room, take a note of what others are talking and even engage in active participation.
Sleep experts say that most people are sleep deprived; may be due to late night parties or staying up late to finish up a project or to give company to a friend who returns late from work. Changing sleep pattern is on the rise with the increased usage of electronic gadgets as well. While there might be numerous reasons for not getting sufficient sleep, it might result in serious problems such as memory loss, faster aging, weight gain, and impaired judgement etc, over a period of time. Sleep deprivation also accounts to major road accidents, chronic health problems such as diabetes, heart attacks, hypertension etc.
Social media channels contain hundreds of pages and communities on “Power Naps” and “Sleeping”, emphasizing further on this topic.
From our analysis we found that most people take power naps while travelling in public transports, during college/ school lectures and in office meetings but the most favourite one was the “toilet nap”. Google shows close to 7,300,000 results for napping in toilets! (Quite a favourite one, yeah!)
Another interesting analysis showed what people talk about ‘power nap’ on Twitter:
1. In the last 30 days alone, there have been 281 thousand mentions of Power Nap. The average conversation on daily basis is around 3,000. This shows how important it is for us to understand the real value of ‘Power nap’.
2. Top 6 topics related to ‘Power nap’ are :
a) nap time b) apple c) #ghostadventures d) #vegas e) una power f) Puerto rico.
This clearly shows that power nap is all about performance (proxy by the keyword Apple :)) and fun (you might have already understood what I mean).
Here are some influential people tweeting on power nap:
1. Paris Hilton :

2. Caitlin Beadles :

3. Andy Milonakis :

4. Graeme Swann :

5. Dane Cook :

 

And some interesting pictures of ‘power nap’ posted on Social Media. This is certainly going to push you for one amazing ‘power nap’.

paris

BTwoLg6IAAAbFgo
BRJOHN1CEAEg1e9
BSXjuSlCIAAiUeO
Now that you are aware of the importance of midday siestas, one very important thing to keep in mind before you hit the couch: Know your employer first before you put your head on the desk and start snoring. Not every employer encourages napping at workplace; you might end up getting fired!
On the other hand several employers have realised the importance of napping and encourage their employees to get cozy during the afternoon. Some of them are Google, Ben & Jerry’s, AOL, Nike, Pizza Hut, British Airways, Proctor & Gamble etc.
One of the best examples to show how napping had increased productivity would be Yarde Metals, Bristol, CT. Years ago, Craig Yarde, the founder of Yarde Metals, noticed his employees napping on the job. Later, he built a new office space containing a nap room. Fifteen years later, the company had grown to nearly 700 employees with over $ 500 million as annual revenue.
Amongst the more recent players, Simplify360 has emerged to be one of those companies that believes in performance and encourages all round development of employees and fosters fun and friendly work environment which includes “napping” too. Bhupendra Khanal, CEO of Simplify360 believes “If you work when you don’t have to, you can anytime choose not to work when you are supposed to”. Are you lucky enough to have such an employer? Share your views with us here.
Courtesy: inc.com, telegraph.co.uk, usatoday.com, guycodeblog.mtv.com, webmd.com
Photo courtesy: Instagram.com, twimg.com