Bosses, let your people nap

"The name of the game these days is increased productivity, and we spend a lot of resources on technology. But no matter how many gizmos and gadgets you give employees, they're not going to be more efficient if they're not alert. Paying attention to sleep is the low-hanging fruit that could dramatically raise productivity."

Dr. Charles Czeisler
Harvard Medical School
Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine



When the cleaning crew arrives around 7 p.m. on the 43rd floor where Chicago attorney Donald McNeil often works late, his office door is shut tight.

Shoes off, tie loosened, he is stretched out on a green vinyl couch, dead to the world. His administrative assistant will wake him when she returns from her workout and he will go back to work, sometimes until past midnight.

"I've caught him snoring but he won't admit it," assistant Andrea Benuzzi says.

McNeil is part of an uncelebrated world of nappers who power through long workdays on less than the recommended seven to eight hours' sleep by stealing a snooze in an office, a parked car, break room or even a bathroom stall.

Just as industrialization did away with the midday siesta, the demands of an electronic age are whittling hours from our nighttime slumber, producing a nation of overcaffeinated workers who too often get jolted awake by a BlackBerry's buzz.

As statistics pile up suggesting we're a sleep-deprived nation, the solution would seem obvious: encourage people to get more sleep. Instead, business celebrates workers who push their waking limits.

Read more after your nap...