Sleeping on the job

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Most of us are not getting enough sleep at night-we need 6 to 8 hours–and our bodies try to make up for it during the day.

The National Sleep Foundation’s annual survey found that one-third of us have fallen asleep or become sleepy at work in the past month. I dispute those findings. Everyplace I’ve worked has had at least a 75 percent sleepiness rate. Walk around any workplace at 3:00 in the afternoon. Those who are at their desks are nodding off. Those who are not at their desks are at Starbucks ordering double shots of espresso.

Whatever the rate of drowsiness in the American workplace, employers are starting to understand that it affects productivity and something needs to be done to counteract it. Access to a “nap room” is the latest (and greatest, in my opinion) employee perk. People who study these things tell us that a 20-minute nap in the afternoon measurably increases productivity for the rest of the day.

Nobody knows this better than Keeper. For years, he has reserved the last 20 minutes of his lunch hour for a little nod-off. He leans back in his chair, closes his eyes, and pretty soon his chin is bobbing toward his chest. When it snaps backwards, he is done. The rest of the afternoon he is focused and productive.

When I used to complain about being tired at work, he asked me why I didn’t just take a nap after lunch. Besides the fact that the employee handbook listed sleeping on the job as grounds for dismissal, there was no place to catch a few winks. Keeper had a lock on his office door. Not only did I not have a lock, I had a boss who, when he remembered to knock at all, did it as he was flinging the door open. The constant threat of sudden office invasion wasn’t exactly conducive to napping.

At a previous job, I was once overcome with fatigue after a lunch of leftover lasagna. I asked my secretary to knock on my door and wake me up in 20 minutes, at 1:00. I put my head down on my desk and drifted off. At 2:30, I woke up with a start. I was disoriented, I had drool on my shirt, and I was late for a meeting. My secretary offered a lame “oops” when I charged out of my office. Waking me up wasn’t the only thing she had forgotten to do. We found out when we finally fired her, that she had forgotten to file anything for 6 months.

Even though it has been proven that a little nap during the day is refreshing and restorative, there is still a stigma against it. Fortunately, in my current workplace (my home office) there is a pro-napping policy. A comfy couch and a canine napping buddy are provided.

If your workplace is not so enlightened, let me clue you in on a trick I learned in college: it is possible to sleep with your eyes open. It takes practice, and you must take care not to blow it by bobbing your head or snoring. I once slept through an entire semester of Existentialism. Of course, I wasn’t taking the class for a grade-it was pass/fail.

I’m guessing your job isn’t pass/fail. Here’s another idea: use your lunch hour to catch 40 winks in your car. Just make sure you set the alarm.