Man has constantly striven to develop new techniques to allow him to achieve more in life. From the early Greek philosophers, through to creative geniuses such as Beethoven, Da Vinci, Dali and Einstein one recurring technique has been napping.

Great leaders in times of War, such as Napoleon and Winston Churchill, were known to have napped to help them deal with their stress. Since then it is a technique that has been employed by many UK Prime Ministers and US Presidents, including Margaret Thatcher, John F Kennedy, Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

application

Now, power napping has taken corporate America and Japan by storm. Workers are actively encouraged to take breaks in their day and have a nap; they are even sent on courses to learn how to do this! Apparently you’re never too big to take a nap. Today, napping is a health trend, a workplace perk and even an art form. Children do it, students do it, even educated Corporate Chairmen and CEO’s do it.

high-powered corporations that subscribe to the idea

nike

At Nike employees have access to "relaxation rooms". Nike also urges its employees to just do it, although it calls its nap room a "relaxation room."

The relaxation rooms offer a place of solitude and rest where the senses are engaged by soothing sounds and visuals and delighted by elegant materials and calming scents. Usually they feature massage chairs, large flat-panel screens, aromatherapy machines, color kinetic arrays for light therapy, integrated surround sound audio systems, and even surround-visual displays that present large scale images seen through headsets.

british airways

Rosekind's real-world research at NASA resulted in at least one airline, British Airways, allowing pilots on trans-oceanic flights to catch a few winks so they will be more alert when landing.

great dane trailers

Kit Hammond, President of Great Dane Trailers in Savannah, Ga., one of the largest manufactures of trailers and trucks says he’d give his office staff and plant supervisors a chance to try napping at work because he suspects fourty winks will not only make his employees feel better, but might even make them more productive. He turned to Tom Deluca, one of the gurus of corporate napping to train his workers on the art of power napping and sixty of Great Dane Trailers employees signed up for the workshop.

trc

TRC, an engineering consultancy in Mountain View, California, touts a "quiet room" where employees can grab a pillow and a blanket and stretch out on the couch. OP Contract, the wholesale office furniture has instituted a napping and rest program.

gould evans goodman associates

Kansas City based architectural firm Gould Evans Goodman Associates pitched three "spent tents" in a corner of its office. Each outfitted with air mattress, sleeping bag, foam pad, flannel pillow, Walkman, eye shades and alarm clock. Employees doze in "spent tents" in a fairly secluded second-floor loft space. According to the company spokesperson Mindy Highfill, no stigma is attached to those using them. "When it’s the middle of the afternoon and I’m not getting work done because I’m tired, I know I’m better off taking a 10-15 minute nap," she says. "Then, when I go back to work, I’m refreshed and revitalized and able to get a lot more done."

u.s. army

U.S. Army’s studies have convinced their top brass to allow officers a nod or two while on the job.

burlington northern santa fe railroad

A railroad company, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, allows train conductors and engineers to take scheduled naps of up to 45 minutes long when the train is stopped and as long as one crew member is on watch. Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, the second largest railroad in the country, instituted a policy allowing sleep-deprived employees to take short naps. Tommy Gibson of Burlington Northern-Santa Fe said "We found that production has gone up since we implemented the napping policy and that we do have much more alert employees."

union pacific railroad

At Union Pacific Railroad their napping policy is aimed at the road freight teams. They permit one crew member a 45 minute nap. Dennis Holland Ph.D., Union Pacific’s director of Alertness Management, anticipates napping programs for other segments of the company. "Employees find napping to be an effective management and employee relations benefit — management’s willingness to colour outside the box has impressed employees" Holland says. "Our society is sleep-deprived" he added, which adopted a pro-napping policy in 1998. "It’s worse than it was in the past, and we have to address it.”