SLEEPING ON THE JOB
For eight years, Daniel Reyes has worked as an engineer at a factory in Ohio that makes parts for trains. After lunch, he used to face the same problem. "By two o'clock my eyes would start closing, and I'd read the same page three times," he recalls. To stay awake, he drank cup after cup of coffee, which kept him up at night. Last spring, the factory turned an empty storage room into a nap room, where any employee may sleep for up to twenty minutes during the afternoon break. Reyes was thrilled. "Now I can take a short nap in the middle of my shift and come back fully alert," he says. "And because I've given up the afternoon coffee, I sleep much better at night."(lines 1–8)
Reyes is not alone. "Feeling sleepy after lunch is not a sign of laziness," explains sleep researcher Dr. Helen Ward. "The body's internal clock causes a natural drop in energy at that time of day." According to Ward, a nap of ten to twenty minutes can restore alertness for several hours. In studies, people who took such naps solved problems faster, made fewer errors and were in a better mood than those who kept working. For some workers, a short sleep is even a matter of safety. Long-distance truck drivers are advised to pull over and rest as soon as they feel their eyes closing, because a few seconds of sleep at the wheel can cause a serious accident.(lines 9–16)
A quiet room with a sofa is the cheapest way to let staff rest, but employers have come up with other ideas, too. Some buy "sleep pods" that shut out light and noise. Others hang hammocks in a corner of the office, and a few even rent beds in a nearby hotel. "The danger with any nap space is that people stay too long, sink into deep sleep and wake up feeling worse than before," says Ward. "That is why most pods come with a gentle alarm that goes off after twenty minutes. It wakes users before deep sleep begins, so they can return to their desks refreshed."(lines 17–22)
Napping at work is not an option for everyone. "Some jobs simply cannot be stopped halfway," Ward points out. "A bus driver can't leave passengers waiting on the road, and a surgeon can't walk out in the middle of an operation." Even so, about one in five large American companies now offers a nap space, and Ward expects that number to grow. "Tired employees make more mistakes and have more accidents, and that costs businesses a great deal," she says. "A twenty-minute nap is a bargain. What's more, sleep pods are far cheaper than they were ten years ago, so even small firms can now afford one."(lines 23–29)