By Robin Sam
ONE of the minor regrets of my life has to do with not being able to work in Google. My last corporate assignment was with Yahoo! And, that was in 2008. When I quit an IT major in 2006 to join Yahoo!, one of my colleagues who came up to congratulate me on the new job, winked at me and asked: ‘What next? Google?’
Although I never got to work in Google, (the search engine company which it was back then, now it is much bigger and complex than that), I knew in the back of my mind the next ideal stop for anyone waiting for their next big break should be with them. The reason why I wanted to work in Google was not just its fat pay check. There was another allurement. If my memory serves me right, the company had embraced napping as an on the job perk even then. Navigating through one’s work load after a heavy or a light lunch was almost always a challenge.
Today, many other companies offer napping as a perk. Facebook, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Zappos among others have designated room for naps. I don’t know how long these companies allow their staff to nap? If some studies are to be believed, an ideal snooze time would be 26 minutes. And, this short siesta boosts work performance by 34 percent.
You don’t need me to tell you naps are great for memory, productivity and cognitive function but did you know before I told you the ideal length of a nap is less than 30 minutes? Yes, that’s what it is. And, the next time someone tells you people need eight hours of sleep ask them to cut the crap. Seven and half hours is enough, it’s been discovered.
In an interesting article, Fast Company quotes Dean Croke, principal anaylst at DAT Frieght & Analytics as saying that people (especially truckers) need to be taught to sleep! Croke, who was himself a truck driver in Australia, knows a thing or two about sleep or sleep deprivation. He says he has seen upfront the dark side of the trucking industry from a sleep deprivation perspective.
When it comes to sleep, minutes not hours matter, he says. From a very young age we have been told that more sleep is better sleep but nothing could be further from the truth. Human brains sleep in cycles of 90 minutes and the quality of your sleep depends on your sleep architecture.
“About 30 minutes after you drift off to sleep, the brain enters a phase of deep restorative sleep. During this stage, the body goes through a repair cycle and the immune system is bolstered. Deep sleep lasts between 30 and 75 minutes, after which your brain starts to wake up. You finish off that sleep cycle with a dream and rapid eye movement (REM),” the article in FC states.
Five 90-minute sleep cycles are ideal for humans, Croke says. However, one can break it into two cycles in a row and three cycles later in the day.
Another interesting thing Croke says is that our bodies are programmed to sleep twice a day – at night and again eight hours after you wake up. The second sleep should be a 30-minute or a 90-minute nap to wake up fully refreshed and rejuvenated.
So the next time someone catches you dozing off in a meeting, don’t feel guilty. Tell them it’s time to use the 30-90 rule! Just kidding. Share this article with your friends and bosses. Ciao!
