April 16, 2004
NO REST FOR THE WICKED:
Sleeper Hit: Give them your tired...: Blink PowerNaps launches the "midday rest facility," where naptimes are scheduled all the time. (Lora Kolodny, April 2004, Inc.)
Worked late last night? For less than the price of a Starbucks nonfat grande latte, you can buy another way to recharge, thanks to Blink PowerNaps, a start-up based in New York City that is banking on naps becoming as much a part of the workday as coffee breaks.Co-founded by Arshad Chowdhury and Christopher Lindholst, Blink is about to open its first "midday rest facility" with eight pods in the Empire State Building. Future locations include San Francisco and Chicago. Members visit the facility as they would a gym or spa. They can call or make online reservations for a patent-pending "NaPod," a chaise longue with cockpit-style privacy visor. The pods, designed by architect Matthew Hoey and made by an Indianapolis F-1 racecar plant, are outfitted with clean, hypoallergenic linens and noise-deadening headphones. Snoozers choose from an audio menu (including ambient sounds or personal MP3s) and wake to simulated sunlight, gentle vibrations, and a shot of caffeinated vitamin water.
CEO Chowdhury says a few progressive employers have already offered to subsidize the $65 monthly membership fee. Nonmembers pay up to $18 for a half-hour session (sleep scientists say 20-minute naps are ideal in order to wake refreshed, not groggy). The company also plans to lease pods for use during particularly tough, round-the-clock workweeks.
It's easy to imagine that as we learn more about the benefits of sleep and rest it will alter our social schedules quite dramatically, not least by building a nap time into the work day and by moving back the start of the school day.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 16, 2004 10:07 AM
Can't they just sell desks with built-in beds, like George Costanza had built on "Seinfeld"?
Posted by: Robert Duquette at April 16, 2004 12:10 PMHey, if living life in a sleep-deprived fog is good enough for me, then it's good enough for my kids.
Posted by: David Cohen at April 16, 2004 12:14 PMFinally, a trendy cause I can latch onto. I'm just waiting until all this faddish nonsense about obesity passes before I launch a bunch of class actions against employers for knowingly killing their employees by depriving them of this daily twenty-minute elixer of life. Greedy capitalists!
Posted by: Peter B at April 16, 2004 12:22 PMIsn't the mid-day "siesta" an old tradition in China, Spain, and Latin America? This sounds like we're just adopting the tradition with some high-tech tweaks.
Posted by: Ken at April 16, 2004 12:28 PMugh. this is stupid, considering the majority of employees only put in an average of 1-2 PRODUCTIVE hours of work a day. why the hell do they deserve lunch/naptime as well?
my solution is to bring in my workers @ ten, work their asses off until 1, then send them all home. if i get 3 productive hours, i'm willing to pay more per hour. just wait, this will catch on as people start bitching about their long 40 hour work weeks. i still can't believe they cut residents hours from 120/week to 80/week (the pussification of the medical field).
Posted by: poormedicalstudent at April 16, 2004 5:54 PMGive them naps and you could get two productive hours before and two after--it'll revolutionize productivity.
Posted by: oj at April 16, 2004 5:58 PMno one would be productive leading up to their nap, so you'd lose about 30 minutes before. also, most would be slow to swing back into motion after the nap, so you'd lose 30 minutes there as well. hence the 10-1, no breaks, no lunch, no nap. just work and go home.
hmm....maybe i'm onto something
Posted by: poormedicalstudent at April 16, 2004 6:03 PMH'mmmm. I don't know how practicable instituting a "siesta"-like period into the workday will be, at least at this point (though I certainly wouldn't say no to a considerably longer lunch break!), but I've found that, of late, I've started taking hour-or-so-long naps in the afternoon on weekends after lunch and I certainly haven't been any the worse for it. Then again, it could be an aftereffect of my advancing age (I hit the big 40 last month).
Posted by: Joe at April 16, 2004 8:44 PM