Why You Need a Nap at Work

Remember in kindergarten they used to make us take naps? Turns out your office is a lot like kindergarten, and your boss should be handing you a mat, writes Tony Schwartz at Fast Company, and here's why:

• Memory: Subjects in a Harvard memory study who napped "sustained their performance all day long. Those who didn't nap performed increasingly poorly as the day wore on," Schwartz writes.
• Reaction time: Pilots given a 30-minute nap on long flights saw their reaction time improve by 16%; non-nappers' reactions fell off by 34%.

You get the idea. So if "the more hours we work continuously, the greater the toll on our performance," Schwartz writes, then why aren't more employers encouraging a little shuteye? "If encouraging employees to take a half-hour nap means they can be two or three times as productive over the subsequent three hours—and far more emotionally resilient—the value is crystal clear. It's a win-win and a great investment."
(More afternoon nap stories.)