For the last 8 years at work, I napped for 12-40 minutes basically every afternoon. I headed out into the parking lot and slept in the back of my car. (I bought the model I own after testing to make sure the back was nappable.)

My most productive, creative time was the hour or two in the late afternoon following the nap.

All my co-workers knew the deal and so did my boss. Nobody else napped, but my napping was normal and accepted.

The idea of giving that up if I ever go back to a "normal" butts-in-seats company seems stupid and uncivilized.

When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we'd have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break.

Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system. No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people. Definitely something I approve of; I've a small mattress in my office just for such occasions.

>Sleeping on the job is one of those workplace taboos — like leaving your desk for lunch

What kind of company is it a taboo to leave your desk for lunch?

Lunchtime naps are common in Taiwan. Someone will turn off the light in the office at the start of the lunch break, and turn it back on at the end.

That change of lighting encourages everyone to take a rest or leave, because staying will disturb the people who want to rest. It also saves a little electricity, I suppose.

I'm really envious of people who are actually able to take naps because it just doesn't work for me. By the time I actually "phase out", for which I need at least like 20-30 minutes, most of my lunch break would already be over, resulting in me waking up all groggy and irritated.

Better: eat less lunch. Ever since I've started having no more than a moderate bowl of low-cal (not "diet", just not "vitamix'd pizza") soup, the second half of the day is just as productive as the first. If I eat enough for a food coma, I go home; I'd provide no useful anything for the rest of the day, nap or no, so no sense hiding it by merely being around.

> Naps at work can make you more productive. Maybe don’t be this obvious about it, though.

That image caption sums up the prevailing attitude for me, really: don't be obvious that you're being more productive, especially if it goes against the grain. Better to toe the line and be less productive. There are many examples of the same phenomenon, beyond just napping.

In India, this seems to be common in households. You would find family members taking an hour or so nap after lunch. Even during festivals or occasions, host arranges nap session for guests. Though it is seen as unprofessional in offices. Until few years ago I used to think those people as lazy and unproductive but now perspective seems to be changing.

I like meditation better. I want a meditation room at work, complete isolation, with options for sitting and lying down. Deep meditation has become useful for me to relax and recharge. Also, when you get good at it, it helps you solve things faster when you get stuck on a problem.

The difficult part for me is avoiding napping during 50% of my conference calls.

I work about 5 minutes from my house. I get to go home, in silence, grab some food, and nap in my own bed. It makes ALL the difference in the world.

At my job, I always feel like it's frowned upon to take a nap. In most cases we're a "as long as you get your work done, we can be flexible with hours" kind of shop. But the moment I close my eyes even for just a few short moments, someone either taps me or later mentions "man, you look exhausted, are you okay?"

Power naps make me feel more refreshed, which I'd assume people would want out of their coworker/employee late in the work day, but maybe I'm wrong.

I don't think I could physically fall asleep at work. Are people really this tired while they're at their offices?

It seems like if you're so tired while you're at work that you actually want to take a nap, then maybe there is another underlying problem.

I've regularly taken naps at lunch too and found they make a big difference to afternoon productivity. I've found walking also has a similar effects, especially on grass. I normally do one or the other depending on how well I slept the night before.

How long do people find most effective? I've found either 12 min or 30 min to be best for me. 30 min if I'm particularly tired, 12 min if not. If I go longer than 12 I get foggy for around 30 min after.

Here in Japan it's very common to take naps during the day. Personally I don't take naps but I try to take enough rest during the night. Taking naps during the day might actually hurt your ability to sleep in the evening. https://www.verywell.com/30-days-to-better-sleep-go-to-bed-o...

What if your boss is about to catch you napping under your desk and you have to call a friend and convince him to call in a bomb threat so you can escape?

I nap for 20 minutes every day at work (at my previous company, for 4 years or so and now since I'm working remotely). Here are my steps for taking a nap:

1. Find a good place to nap. Use the same place every day. I used to nap under my desk on a lazy bag at my last job.

2. Quickly find a comfortable position. Quickly fix everything that bothers you (like watch on your wrist or anything else that's making you uncomfortable).

3. Start breathing from your stomach - not your upper torso. Your stomach should raise up and down, not your upper torso.

4. Relax your whole body. In the beginning, start by relaxing one by one region. First your toes. Then your lower leg, then your upper leg. Then the other leg... Until you relax your whole body. It should feel as your mind is separate from your body. Like it could go out of it. Your body should be completely numb. Later, as you progress, you will be able to relax your whole body with a few breaths. As if some force flows from your stomach and removes spasm from your body as you breath out.

5. Start removing thoughts from your brain. As you start thinking about something, just stop. Another thought comes in. Kill it. Just kill thoughts. You can think only about your breathing. Nothing else.

That's it. With these steps, I'm able to feel a sleep in just a few moments. I use that all the time.

Bonus: I have a special position that I "developed" that mitigates office sounds. I nap on my back, slightly turned on left side. I put my left ear on the pillow or a lazy bag. I put my right hand over my right ear and over my head. That way, a pillow isolates my left ear, while my right biceps isolates my right ear from sounds. I found this to be very effective.

Good luck napping.

I'll make sure that article is visible in my browser while I'm taking that nap.

In Japan this is called inemuri. However there is etiquette associated to sleeping on the job.

I've heard in some cases there are secret nap meetings where all the attendees agree to take a nap.

My feeling is that apart from really essential meetings (and those are very few) your schedule should be pretty open and sleep/break/nap when you want (ideally at home).

Then use metrics other than bums on seats to measure performance.

My office had two small nap rooms in the break room. A small bench-like bed, a blanket, and a sliding door that makes a dark room. It's bed really to take a 20 minute break to refresh and refocus.

I wonder how long it takes things like work productivity tips on HN to filter out to the real world?

Before I started drinking coffee, I had a solid nap flow going. Now that coffee is in the picture, I'd probably just lay there for 20 minutes twitching :/.

Don't unless you're sure people won't talk behind your back and management won't get the wrong impression. "Look at so and so snoring while we are working hard getting stuff out of the door".

Rationally you'll explain and show the article from NYT, and they'll agree. But irrationally they'll still form an opinion and stick to it.

I don't understand napping, never have. Are you really that tired that you must sleep in the middle of the day? Maybe you just need better rest at night, or maybe you need to exercise more or eat better food? Unless you're a toddler then napping feels like compensating for something else.

To each their own, if it works for you that's great.

I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be allowed where I work. Even though it's an US company, it's being led by Germans and in some offices they will already complain if you eat too long. "Take Naps at Work. Apologize to No One." would be a pretty dangerous statement there.

NYTimes HQ has 3 nap rooms on different floors. Not sure how many people knew about it.

I've been doing naps at work for the last year, since I started to try polyphasic sleep. Naps play an essential role in my polyphasic strategy. Those 30 minutes I spend sleeping after lunch save me some sleep hours during night. You can get some data points about naps and its importance in this book (which I recommend): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleep-Myth-Hours-Power-Recharge/dp/...

I think age plays a role too- a few years ago I would have laughed at the idea of someone having to take a break and rest in the middle of an 8 hour period to regain energy. But I can now clearly see how that matters.

Do the companies who allow naps see it as a perk or a necessity? IOW, if you see naps as beneficial would you be OK with people taking them during a product release, or a service interruption?

There are definitely days when I've wished my workplace had a nap room. Maybe I've had a busy few days and I just get a bit more tired than normal after lunch. It makes sense to me - if I'm tired at 2pm then I normally have another 3.5 hours until clock off. If I dont nap they wont be very productive. If I could nap I would only lose half an hour then be productive for the other 3+ hours. I would probably stay longer anyway so its no lost time to my employer anyway.

One of the nice things about working from home, for me, is the ability to take the occasional nap when I'm dragging. It takes me about 15 minutes to get what I need... once I hit a half hour, it becomes counterproductive as I'm starting to "sleep" rather than "nap".

Most nights, I do get sufficient sleep, but I need the occasional nap anyway.

A study by NASA found that the optimal time for a nap was 26 minutes.

The lengthy study can be found [here](http://www.jetlog.com/fileadmin/downloads/NASA_TM_94_108839....).

This is the greatest benefit of working from home (or second greatest if you have a lot of traffic to fight)... Around lunch, do a quick 30min exercise, protein shake, lay down, read a bit and fall asleep for 30 minute and you'll feel like you have one more productive day in the afternoon...

I'm all for this, but I think it's also important not to eat too much for lunch and to do sport, you probably won't feel like taking naps during the day as much.

Or you could work shorter hours and get a decent nights sleep.

And here I'm, on a holiday, pretending to provide IT support to five employees. The other 90+ employees chose not to work on holiday. I hate society...

This goes back to the days when people drank much more, at work, at lunch, etc...

In a drinking culture, nodding off at your desk is a very very bad thing because it means you can't handle your liquor and this just could not be tolerated. Due to all the drinking, with management and clients, if you had a problem your were a liability. It's insane but it was another time. Not my generation but I've had conversations.

Napping now, with the amount of real work we all do. The stress level we are willing to carry. It's just not anybody's business anymore.

I find nap rooms useful for those days when I've been there all night and need to have a semblance of functionality for meeting the next day.

My coworker used to take a nap and fart really loud without noticing. I'm not trying to be funny I just worry I might do the same.

Where I work, go/nap is respected. If I see a teammate napping, I would try to be less noisy, and leave him/her to rest.

Napping is fireable offense at my company. :(

How do you take naps? It takes me an hour or two to fall asleep. I don't drink coffee.

I quit energy drinks 3 months ago, taking a nap during lunch has been immensely important.

Technique around here is to nap in the car. 15 minutes is usually enough to be refreshed.

I found that I don't feel sleepy after lunch if I work while standing up. But if I sit in a chair I can feel sleepy and a five minute nap makes for a more productive afternoon than fighting the sleepiness. Has anyone else observed this effect of curing after lunch sleepiness by standing up?

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I'll take "fast tracks to a pink slip" for $800, Alex.

nytimes.. i'll skip