Selling sleep:
Short but intensive!
Everyone knows the feeling: Performance and motivation decline in the early afternoon. A nap sounds enticing. Impossible? Not necessarily, as a new trend is appearing on the horizon: power-napping.
Some swear by it, others are still sceptical: power-napping is supposed to induce quick relaxation and replenish one’s batteries for the rest of the day. From Fatigue Risk Management to stylish sleep stores in NYC – companies and workers have long tapped into the marketing potential of napping.
Power-napping for modern people?
A power-nap improves performance and is the perfect remedy for a concentration slump in the afternoon. An old hat? We have long known the benefits of an afternoon nap – much disliked by children but valued by older people. While a regular nap lasts up to two hours, power-napping shouldn’t take up more than 40 minutes to prevent the body from entering deep sleep, which generally occurs after one and a half hours into the sleep cycle. Entering a deep sleep cycle but failing to complete it can result in feeling more exhausted than before. That’s why experts recommend only 20 minutes of power-napping, which makes a power-nap more practical than regular sleep.
Get energised
The advantage is obvious: due to fatigue people make mistakes, don’t work efficiently and lack motivation. Power-napping is supposed to be an antidote, helping to relax from every day stress and replenish one’s energy, with consequent improvement in reaction, attention, creativity and the ability to learn. One is relaxed, happier and performs better, ready to tackle new challenges.
That means that colleagues and employers benefit alike!
There are numerous studies that attest to these benefits. For example, the risk of a heart attack is said to decrease by up to 37 per cent.
A new industry is shaping up
Little wonder that even leading organisations – from BASF to Hornbach and Lufthansa – focus on the benefits of power-napping by providing designated napping spaces, with health management now increasingly focusing on sleep, along with nutrition and exercise. Fatigue Risk Management was inspired by economical considerations and aims at lowering the error rate, the occurrence of accidents and the incidence of sickness as a result of fatigue.
However, before indulging in a well-deserved nap, the basics must be learned. This is where MetroNaps comes in: it provides Fatigue Risk Management worldwide, offering consulting, training and power-napping solutions for offices and work environments. Clients include prominent names such as Procter&Gamble, Google, Estée Lauder, Virgin Media, Cisco or PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Power-napping and the City
Relaxing music and soft lighting with individually selected colours and intensity create an environment where one can peacefully fall asleep in a comfortable deck chair – and after 20 to 40 minutes rise like a Phoenix. Yelo, the sleep store in New York City – a lifestyle oasis of calm and tranquillity amid the hustle and bustle of the city that never sleeps, offers wellness coupled with a power-nap. YeloNap is practiced in combination with reflexology. Quick and easy relaxation with maximum results!
But the relaxation has its price: you will need to invest 15 to 28$ for 20 to 40 minutes in the YeloCab, including a reflexology treatment.
It helps to have the right tools
Ok, you are ready for the power-nap, but where should you give it a try? Putting down one’s head on the desk and letting the arms hang down is neither relaxing nor ergonomically advisable. That’s why companies have begun setting up separate rooms for power-napping, or at least designated relaxation zones. There are various power-napping surfaces – from the Napshell, an ergonomically shaped designer sleeping capsule with music and lighting effects, to the Nappak, a comfortable air mattress resembling a cave. The pneumatic object is electrically inflatable and can be vacuumized, rolled up and stored in a round trolley after the power-nap.
By the way,if you don’t need a separate place to sleep and simply wish to indulge in three hours of deep sleep in only 20 minutes, you will appreciate the power-nap audios (as CD or separate device) that induce various sleep stages by way of wavelengths inaudible to the human ear.
Well, you can’t have everything – but a healthy dose of sleep looks promising... and as a workaholic you may get your hopes up...
Anna Voltren
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