Taking scheduled naps at work (part 1)

Given that I am a strong proponent of taking scheduled naps, I thought I would write a few more posts talking about how I make this happen in real life.  I can only imagine how daunting a task it would be as an adult to start to take such naps, what with all the pressures an adult has on them that a child does not (the most obvious being work).  I know that at age 9 it was no small feat to adjust to taking them and to fit them into my life, and that was with the mostly fixed schedule of the school day, in addition to the other activities and plans that kids have (for example, sports).

Life has only gotten more complicated as I have gotten older, and I can imagine that a change like this would be hard to make as an adult.  This is certainly one of the added benefits of being diagnosed so young: I grew up taking naps, so it isn’t as big of a deal as it might otherwise be.  To me, taking naps is just about as ingrained as brushing my teeth in the morning.  It’s just something that I have to do to live and function properly.

With that, I share with you what I have learned in taking scheduled short naps at work, in the hopes that perhaps it might help you as you figure out what works for you.  In this post, I am going to focus on the first of the two scheduled naps, the noon nap, however a lot of things I will touch upon will also be relevant to the topic of the second nap.  I will deal with the nap at 3 pm in another post, and if it gets too long I will add another post as well.

As far as taking a 15-25 minute nap around 12 pm (preferably at exactly 12) goes, the lunch break is your friend.  You are going to need that lunch break to take this nap.  Fortunately, it’s long enough that you should be able to take a nap and eat lunch (provided you bring it from home or eat out nearby).  You might even have some time to spare, especially if you only take a 15 minute nap. 

Thank goodness for lunch time.  Although it can be hard if everyone else normally does other things during this time (like go out to lunch for the whole hour), this is generally a fairly easy time to fit in a nap without many people noticing or caring, as everyone is taking a break of around an hour to do whatever.  Or, at least it’s easier than the 3 pm nap.

The great thing about naps is that you can take them almost anywhere.  All you really need is an alarm clock (you can use your cell phone, although I prefer a real alarm clock), a place to do it, and something to lie your head on (a pillow/sweater/jacket/etc.).

The Ideal Workplace Nap:  In a perfect world, you would have a bed, but unless you are extraordinarily lucky (say, you work in school, which has a nurse’s office with multiple beds…), you can count yourself lucky if you get a couch.  Occasionally this might actually be a reality – I had an internship at a non-profit organization once where I used to take my naps on the big couch they had in the middle of the room (they were totally cool with this; no one even cared).  Besides being on a couch, the ideal workplace nap would be in a quiet, dark room where you would not be disturbed, and you would also have a blanket, in case you might get cold.

However, if you’re going to take naps everyday at work, unfortunately, you’re probably going to have to take “the Less than Ideal Workplace Nap” most of the time.  So let’s talk about that.

The Less Than Ideal Workplace Nap: If you haven’t struck workplace nap gold, than you’re going to have two options when it comes to your nap: the two chair nap or the head on the desk nap.  I’m going to be honest: neither is very comfortable or great looking, but they get the job done.  If you really need that nap (me, I always really need it), than you’re going to have to be flexible as to how you get it. 

• The two chair nap: I’ve only ever done this one when the only place I could find to take a nap was a conference room with some chairs and no table, but I’ll mention it anyways.  This is when you put your head on one chair and your bottom half (curled up) on the other chair.  Then you lie down (I know, it’s a bit of a feat).  It’s a bit strange, but you do get to lie down and you don’t wake up with marks on your forehead and pins and needles in your arms and hands and maybe your feet (like you might with more standard head on the desk nap).
• The good old head on the flat surface (desk, table) nap:  This one is pretty much self explanatory.  You put your head down on a desk/table on top of something like a sweater and sleep.  I’m really good at this one: I can basically do this one most anywhere.  As a plus, this is definitely better than the head against the bus window nap, let me tell you.  Another plus?  It’s definitely less tempting to oversleep with this nap: it’s harder to get out of bed when you’re in your nice comfy warm bed, believe me, so you might get more out of your naps if you do this, strange as that sounds.

You’re going to have to get creative about about getting a decent nap at work – or any nap at all, for that matter.  It goes without saying that your boss and the people you work with are going to need to know that you have Narcolepsy (give them the short explanation: “I have this sleep disorder called Narcolepsy where I get tired during the day no matter how much I sleep at night and I need to take two 25 minute naps a day, one at 12 and one at 3, to deal with it, in addition to medication.  And no, I don’t randomly fall asleep mid-conversation like in the movies.”) and not to disturb you during your nap unless it is a real emergency.  This is important, because otherwise people are going to keep waking you up during your nap, which will reduce the benefits you will get from taking one.  (They may very well wake you up regardless through ringing phones, conversations, etc., but you should be able to prevent some things, like people calling you, coming to talk to you, giving you work, saying your name, or asking if you are okay, by them knowing what’s going on.)

It goes without saying that you are going to want to find the best nap taking place that you can (as quiet as possible and preferably dark or at least not with glaring lights that are going to make it hard to sleep).  Ideally, it would also be somewhere where there are no people, because where there are people, there are people who can wake you up when you’re trying to sleep (they can bump into you, have a loud conversation an arm length’s away, their phones can ring, etc.).  It’s also just nicer to be able to take naps without people watching you.  That way you don’t have to wonder what they are thinking or worry about how you look doing it or what have you.

If you work in a big office in a cubicle or with lots of people around you, you’re probably going to want to look into taking a nap somewhere other than your desk.  Although you can do it, there really isn’t anything worse than trying to take a nap in a cubicle with people’s phones ringing every 4 minutes and the people nearby having loud conversations about nothing (despite the fact that they know you are trying to sleep).  If you work in a relatively quiet workplace or a small office, you might very well be able to just take a nap at your desk.  I have often done this at the places I have worked…

If you work in a big office, one option might be to take a nap in a meeting room or conference room, if one is available.  Don’t be afraid to ask your supervisor or human resources for help, if you think that they can help you make this work.  When I worked briefly for an advertising agency, it was my supervisor’s idea that I book one of the meeting rooms for both naps straight through the week first thing every Monday, something I wouldn’t otherwise have been allowed to do.  This was the only way my naps would work, as although there were a lot of meeting rooms, people were often using them for non-essential purposes and many times it would be impossible to find one.  Also, by booking the room, people would see on the chart that it was booked and they wouldn’t try to come in to what they assumed was an empty room (because there was no light on).  I also just locked the door when I was using the room.

I will continue with this subject in another post, as this post is getting to be way too long!

What do you think?  Do you take naps at work, and if so, how do you make them work?  It’s always good for us to hear how other people make things work.

P.S. I thought this was cool, but it doesn’t look like it would be easy to set up, plus it would be kind of embarrassing to have around.  Unless you work somewhere really funky where this sort of thing would be no big deal.