‘Ladies and gentlemen, your pilot is feeling a bit drowsy and is taking a nap.’ Perhaps not an announcement to inspire confidence when you’re whizzing high above the Atlantic in a cylindrical metal tube, and not one you’re likely to hear. But it does happen – the nap not the announcement! Pilots on long haul flights often have forty winks, but fortunately not at the same time as their co-pilot. Air traffic controllers even have the odd lie down and in some companies, napping stations are provided for employees who don’t feel alert enough to continue safely on the production line.
So what’s the evidence that napping works? Pretty good, as it happens. A short but intentional period of sleep during the day is not only very pleasant, but produces measurable improvements in mood, alertness and performance... even in those who didn’t feel tired beforehand. The trick is to limit the nap to an optimal 15 minutes, and certainly no more than thirty. Go for longer and you’re likely to experience the grogginess of ‘sleep inertia’ (a fancy term for not wanting to wake up at all). Also long naps can stop you sleeping well at night, whereas a short power nap can do nothing but good (unless you’re behind the wheel of a car or operating heavy machinery).
But do we need to learn how to nap? As patronising as it sounds, there’s an art form to just going under for 15 minutes and you get better with practise. There are people out there who are happy to take money off you for napping training (as opposed to nappy training), but if you practise on your own, you’ll soon get proficient. I often perform comedy late at night which gets the adrenaline going (particularly if people don’t laugh) and stops me getting to sleep afterwards. It’s considered poor form to nap on stage, but I’ve perfected the art of a quick kip in the back of a cab, plane or train, and have yet to miss a stop. True, I do occasionally break wind, dribble and snore which isn’t terribly pleasant for nearby passengers, but it’s a small price to pay for arriving refreshed.
In many workplaces, you’d be seen as a slacker to pop off for a nap but there is evidence of increased productivity in companies that allow naps. As a junior doctor in the dark days of 120-hour weeks, I was forever nipping back to the on-call room for a lie down, but the introduction of shift work has led to the removal of on-call rooms in just about every hospital. Alas, shift work is terrible for your health.
Last year, the Danish government paid compensation to nurses and air hostesses who developed cancer after years of disrupted sleep and stuffed-up body clocks. Even if your shift is only eight hours, your poor sleep patterns may require you to take a nap and it’s dangerous not to give NHS staff facilities to do it in. Some enlightened hospitals are offering comfy recliner chairs as an alternative to a bed, but most doctors and nurses are having to make do with falling asleep on their feet. So not much change since my day, and not at all safe for patients. One solution would be for doctors to climb aboard with a patient for a short nap. You’d have to go top to tail, for ethical reasons, and try not to get tangled up in drips, drains and catheters. But for patients, a napped doctor is much safer than an un-napped one. Just don’t let anyone with restless legs into your bed.
This article first appeared in issue 11 of benhealth, the magazine for Benenden Healthcare members.
