Veerle's blog

In my previous article about sleep we talked about the fact that there’s just too much living to be done with a direct result that we cut back on our hours of sleep. This brings us to the topic of today’s post.

POWER NAPS!
In inversely proportional to the shrinking hours of sleep at night, the need for a nap during the day increases strongly. Strong entrepreneurs have picked up on that and see a business opportunity waiting to happen. So that brings us to the newest trend Power naps! You could say that it is the Western incarnation of the siesta. So in the land of unique opportunities (US) power naps are on the way to become big business.

Let’s look at this a little deeper. A good example is a company called MetroNaps that offers midday rest facilities on the 24th floor of the Empire State Building. Washed out New York can recharge their batteries for $13,45 in the Chaise Longue for about 20 minutes. A headphone produces relaxing tunes and when your time is up you’ll be waked by soft vibrations and light. After your power nap you can visit the “freshening up” station. The co-founder of MetroNaps came up with the idea when he saw colleagues dozing off during a meeting. The future looks bright for this company, both men and woman are paying handful of Dollars for some shut eye.
(Inspired by Weekend Knack)

PZIZZ
MetroNaps isn’t the only company either, there are others who have a different approach and sell a small device so that you can choose where you would like to do a power nap. Meet Matthew Ashenden from London who was first introduced to Power-napping when he was a personal trainer. After 3 years of design, scripting, composing, programming, sweat and tears Pzizz was born. Pzizz is a small device (iPod size) that facilitates relaxation and power napping for revitalization and reenergizing. Maury from Railhead Design has first hand experience with the device and has written an article about it.

But wait it doesn’t stop there they also released their nap technology in software form, allowing the user more control over the nuances of the naps. Only available for Mac OS X at the moment but coming to Windows soon. The price is right $39.95 and you export the naps as MP4 and use your iPod as the ultimate napping device. A review of the software is also at your disposal.

A known physiological fact is, that after midday we experience a period of sleepiness. At 4 o’ clock at night we reach the maximum peak of sleepiness, a second peak is between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. That’s also the time when most accidents happen btw.

The outcome of much research has taught us that the ideal power nap time is 20 min. In southern countries the siesta is a way of life but here it is still indecent to nap during the day. But that’s slowly changing as employers are starting to realize that a good well rested employee is also a more productive one. At the UK PR agency Firefly employees can use the nap room. An idea from the CEO Claire Walker since she mostly fell asleep in a cab when she came back from a meeting. Not everybody goes there to sleep but also to escape from the phone, e-mail, stress, etc.

Industrial giant 3M has a sealed zone at their headquarters in Berkshire with 10 seats that perform an electrical shiatsu massage. This is accompanied by chill-out music and a strict prohibition of mobile phones.

A land with a great tradition of power naps at work is Japan. A lot of studies there have proven that it really has an effect. That’s why many visionaries think that the office of the future will be equipped with a special area for power naps.

Now I realize that I have to try this out, a bit weird since we have been learned that sleeping during the day is inappropriate. But hey if it helps in bringing more creativity and in feeling yourself a little bit better what’s the harm…