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“A PLACE OF burnout and exhaustion is not a productive place to work from.”

So speaks Arianna Huffington, preseident of the Huffington Post Media Group. It’s not the hours we spend at work, but how productive we are when we are there that should matter to companies, she tells Business Insider.

To that end, the Huffington Post has two ‘nap rooms’ where employees can beat the mid-afternoon slump with a 20-minute nap, waking refreshed and ready to dive into their tasks.  The rooms are equipped with a day bed, dimmed lighting, candles and cushions to set the boundary between ‘office atmosphere’ and relaxation.

She says:

If somebody’s tired in the middle of the afternoon, it’s so much better to go have a 20-minute nap than to have a 15th cup of coffee or a cinnamon bun to get some energy to keep going.

via Business Insider/Youtube

Beware long naps though: Sleeping for longer than around 25 minutes can tip you into a deep sleep phase, from which you wake up groggy, not refreshed.

The idea of a nap room has taken off in some larger companies in the States, and at least one manufacturer has focused on creating ‘nap pods’ to create a space for employees to zone out. This product from MetroNaps – called the Energypod – has a privacy visor to protect nappers from exterior noise and light. (It also has a timed waking system so you don’t sleep too long.)

via Metronaps.com

What do you think? Are napping facilities a good idea for businesses?

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