Nap Time!

     By:Brendan K.     

        Do you remember back in High school trying to do homework and have a job, then have to wake up at 6 am to go to school? You seemed to never be able to get enough sleep and that only gets worse in college! Well I have some bad news for you. It might be this way your whole life. Unless things change you are looking at hard, sleepless years ahead of you. But that might be turning around soon.

       
     Studies are showing that workers who don’t get enough sleep have been costing companies $63 billion a year, reports the Wall Street Journal. The continuation of lack of sleep can cause stress leading to even less sleep. Out of 196 business leaders, consulted from the firm McKinsley, 43 percent said they didn’t get enough sleep at least 4 nights a week.

            Research shows that years of bad sleep can negatively impact your memory, decision-making skills, creativity, and social interaction. All of these are critical skills for people in top corporate positions. When you are asleep your brain flushes out harmful toxins while process information acquired during the day.

            Why aren’t companies promoting the necessity of getting enough sleep? Well some companies don’t have the organizational effort to emphasize it and it is lower on their priority list. But some companies are beginning to build a work culture that advocates better sleep and productivity. Some companies are implementing “Power Naps” during the work day, such as, Google, Zappos, Ben & Jerry’s, and Huffington Post.

            These companies have created nap rooms for their workers. Companies have also promoted this by encouraging employees to take all of their vacation day (40 percent of Americans don’t), restricting servers from allowing emails to be sent after a certain time, and not allowing them to send emails on days they took off.

            I think these tactics that big corporations are implementing will have a good long term effect on their workers. With the emphasis on getting enough sleep and encouraging workers to do so will increase their worker’s productivity when working because the brain is complex system, but it can’t function properly without enough rest.

Sources:

Che, Jenny. "Why More Bosses Need To Embrace Napping At Work." Huffington Post. 7 Mar. 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

"Lack of Sleep Costs Billions? How About Cats?" WSJ. 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.