Sleeping on the job is not usually something managers promote.
But one New Hampshire company has made napping part of its corporate culture.
Researchers from the Institute of Medicine say napping helps prevent sleep deprivation.
But it could also save the US economy billions of dollars a year.
NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich-Kern files this report.
"Nap pods" are nothing new on the west coast, but are making their way to companies in New Hampshire as well. (Courtesy arlo_j)
As soon as you walk in the door you get the feeling that Yarde Metals in Pelham is a different kind of company.
The lobby looks more like a living room in an estate.
There’s a skylight made of stained glass.
A couple of antique leather couches face a bronze mantle over a working fireplace.
And all around you is lots of history. Old firehoses and fans. Artifacts from metal mills.
And then there’s this door.
A sign on it says, “Nap Room.”
Branch manager Steve Rogers.
Door closing
This is our nap room that employees can use to take a quick nap during their break or during lunch hours. It’s an opportunity for them if they need a refresher to take a quick nap in peace and quiet and get back to work.
The nap room isn’t elaborate. It’s merely a soundproof space with a couch, and a dimmer switch.
Every afternoon I was in here.
That’s Nancy Holdsworth, a young sales support employee at Yarde Metals.
She used the room a lot when she was pregnant.
Because she couldn’t function without a rest.
Usually between two and three every day, if not at lunch time, too. And I would do it again if I had another one (laughs)
People taking orders, answering phones,”Yarde Metals,” fade under
Here in this large open room, about 15 salespeople. sit in three rows – almost like in a college lecture hall.
They spend their day taking orders for aluminum and metal products.
And they look relaxed, like they’re having fun.
They joke around with vendors on the phone, and with each other.
Craig Yarde is the company’s director.
He remembers coming up with the idea for the napping room.
We had a salesperson that after lunch that would put his head in his hands and take a ten-minute nap. We had people who would go outside and bring a lounge chair. We had others who would jump in to the conference room and lay on the couch.
Darrel Drobnich is the chief program officer of the National Sleep Foundation in Washington, DC.
A few years ago, the foundation took a poll on sleep and the workplace.
We estimated that sleepiness alone cost the American economy and employers about 18 billion dollars a year.
A new “Sleep in America” poll says that workers are nodding off on the job.
37 percent of Americans say they take a nap at least once a week. And more than a third of Americans say their workplace actually permits napping during breaks. 16 percent say they provide a place to nap. That’s an increase over the past few years.
In the 80s and 90s, corporations put fitness rooms into their offices.
They considered exercise a part of their wellness program.
Now, Drobnich says, they’re putting rest into they’re wellness program, too.
Companies like Nike, Ben & Jerry’s, and several railroads are building nap stations.
They’re sometimes called nap pods – but that seems to be a west coast name.
OK. Nap pods. Great idea. But is anyone really going to use them?
Sara Mednick is a professor in the psychiatry department at the University of California in San Diego.
She wrote a book about the subject, called “Take a Nap. Change Your Life.”
If you’re sleeping, let’s say, for the 20 minute power nap, that’s going to be what’s called stage two sleep, which is very light sleep and easy to wake up from, and good for your motor memory. If you sleep between 20 minutes and 60 minutes, that’s going to be a period of slow wave sleep. Very restorative. It’s good for muscle growth, tissue growth. It’s also good for some kinds of memory performance.
But Mednick says despite the benefits, it may be a while before napping is a regular part of our work day.
There’s a very strong stigma around doing anything like sleep in the middle of the day. In America only, though. In other countries, like Japan, it’s a sign of actual hard work that you’re falling asleep at your desk and taking a nap. Other countries have napping as part of their day in a natural way.
Darrel Drobnich of the National Sleep Foundation says he knows why people aren’t getting enough sleep.
He says we’re brainwashed.
First, there’s the 400 year-old Puritan work ethic.
And then there’s the Internet, available all the time and wherever you go.
As an employer, you’re expecting your employee to be constantly on email and wired into the office. Why not let it go the other way, and have a little bit of home in the workplace?
It seems to be working for Yarde Metals.
Employee Nancy Holdsworth:
It’s been a concept at Yarde Metals, that if it takes a 15 to 20 minute nap a day to be more productive, they’re all for it.
Ambi, nap room door closing
For NHPR News in Nashua, this is Sheryl Rich-Kern.
