Happy Tuesday ThinkTalkers,

Today I want to deviate from the normal pattern of giving career advice and talk about a practice that has been shown to make people happier, more creative and more productive. This topic is also one that is very close to my heart… naps.

If you are like me, there is no better feeling than stretching out in your warm bed, blankets wrapped around you, head in the perfect spot on the pillow... and there is no worse feeling than being forced to sit upright at a desk, table, etc while yawning away at work, school, or on the battlement of a castle.

During college you could get away with napping during the day (enjoy it while you can), but that’s not necessarily the case in the “real world” even though there is research supporting the fact that naps make people more productive and sharp. Bob Sutton’s Work Matters blog discussed the effect of naps on some students:

Research shows that sleep deprivation makes people unhappy, nasty to others, and undermines their creativity and performance…a related body of research suggests that even a short nap can help combat the damage caused by sleep deprivation.

Along these lines, a new study of naps summarized at the [British Psychological Society] compared the performance of students (measured by their ability to identify out-of-pitch tones) who had no nap after lunch, who had a 20-minute nap leaning forward and resting their head on a desk, or had a 20-minute nap lying down. The researchers found that people who had either kind of nap performed better then those who did not nap, but those who napped lying down had the best performance of all.

So not only do naps improve our performance, but they are best when taken lying down (in your comfy bed). So the next time someone criticizes you for being lazy or lacking motivation, hold your head high my fellow nappers and proudly tell them that you are simply working towards better brain performance! And who knows, if more research like this keeps piling up, it could change the norm in some workplaces. A nap room sounds like a good addition to the office, doesn’t it?

"Sleeping" courtesy of kaibara87 via Flickr Creative Commons