The poll should have indicated age. I never had problems staying awake before I turned forty. A brisk walk around the office shook off any cobwebs. After turning forty, that stopped working. After my brisk walk, I’d sit down and get sleepy again within a few minutes. One second I’m awake and the next I’m out. Thankfully it’s only for a few minutes and then I’m refreshed.
I would never take a nap on the job in most circumstance, but if it’s been a day after I didn’t sleep well, or stayed up late, a 20-minute nap break would be nice.
I voted: “Rarely, but my boss doesn’t mind and I’m OK with it when needed.” even though I’ve not napped at work yet. Both of my bosses have said I should feel free if needed, I’ve just not had the need.
I can’t sleep sitting up and it’s too hot to sleep in my car. I’d have to sprawl on the floor and that would be awkward and uncomfortable. BUT! I do listen to the Andrew Johnson mp3s on breaks with my eyes closed and my chair tilted back when I’m having a stressful day (or when the office is particularly loud). They really help.
I work maintenance in a factory, napping is damn near expected of us. Currently I work midnights, but the dayshift guy and I are both working 12 hour shifts to cover the afternoon’s guy being on vacation. These kinds of hours aren’t atypical for us, so the bosses don’t care if we veg out as needed as long as we jump up when there’s a breakdown.
That being said, although I’m used to watching all the other guys sleep, it’s really hard for me to let myself nod off. I don’t know if it’s being the only female or the lack of privacy, but I usually keep myself awake no matter what.
A couple of times I’ve gotten zero hours of sleep the night before and find myself nodding off at my desk, so I close the door and put my head down for 10-15 minutes. It really refreshes me. I haven’t done it more than 2-3 times but I’m glad I did it when I did. I don’t feel too bad about it because I usually eat lunch at my desk while working and don’t take breaks.
The sick room is on my floor, and it’s got quite a nice armchair in there (and a very not-nice bed, but that’s another story). It also has no windows and the door has to be shut because there’s a security swiper on it, so it’s almost completely lightproof in there.
I have, on occasion, taken my lunch break snoozing in the sick room. We have a flexible work schedule, so I can choose to take a half an hour/ three quarters/ hour long lunch, as long as I adjust my finish time accordingly. And sometimes a 20 minute or so siesta is the cure for the thing that ails ya.
My desk is not a really good place to nap. In the past, though, I worked at an office that had a room just for naps. Two cots, a sheetlike thing hanging between them (as in a hospital curtain I guess, or the Walls of Jericho) and two alarm clocks. First-come first-served on that room. There generally was at least one person in there any time between 10:30 and 2:30. I found the occasional 30-minute nap very refreshing.
Some friends of mine (hedge fund/consultant/lawyer types) were discussing this once. Our collective thought was that there was just something incredibly unprofessional and pathetic about a workplace where people could just sleep at their desks. The implication being that such a place was not busy or interesting enough to require their staff to be awake and not competant or efficient enough to fire people who sleep on the job.
Although truth be told, one time when I was working at such a place ( a large insurance company) after a particularly late night drinking, I did pull up a couple chairs in my ex-bosses office and take a nap for a few hours.
But usually if I’m that tired, I can just “work” from home.
I have enough time at lunch to eat and then nap, and I do. I am not paid for this time, and I want to nap on my break. I can and will sleep sitting up with my eyes open, but it is best for everyone if you let me close a door to nap behind. ( my eyes are open, but they point in random directions while my eyelids experiment with slow winks from the top and bottom). I am awake when being paid. I often work 12 hours, and if I am going to be productive for 12 hours, I want a nap. It takes me very little time to fall asleep, and I can program a wake up in 15 or 20 minutes, but not any other intervals. If sprint napping becomes an Olympic sport I am so on that team.
It just wouldn’t occur to me, even if I did manage to sit down for five minutes. I do, however, often have a 20 minute nap when I get home from work.
When my daughter was younger, I often went to my car during lunch to grab a short nap. If I hadn’t, I would’ve been completely unable to function. I don’t think anyone really cares, but it’d be absolutely out of the question to do it in the office building, especially at my desk. I work in a cube farm, most of which is occupied by a call center. I know that I snore at night, so I imagine I do during naps as well. I can’t imagine me snoring in the middle of a call center would go over well, even if I’m not call center myself.
If I do need a nap (and I fell asleep in my car last week after a really rough night with my daughter, who seems to be coming to the end of teething…finally), I usually go to my car, put on some sunglasses and spread out a magazine in front of me. I’m sure if you looked at me directly, you’d realize I was asleep, but I doubt people pay that much attention. I know I don’t.
Does falling asleep through inattention or passing out count as a nap? The intention isn’t there, but I suppose both cases are naps, and I’ve done both at some stop-gap short-term money-grabbing jobs in the past few years. I’m not a rabbit – I need some rest.
I don’t work in an office any longer, I’m a bar bouncer/doorman. So napping is really not an option. I also have trouble falling asleep anywhere but at home and even there it can take an hour or more. I wasn’t like this before approx 10 yrs ago, I used to be able to sleep anywhere.
Other jobs I’ve had included farm laborer, field auditor (lots of driving), electronics tech/computer tech, and overnight answering service operator. Every once in a while I would nap briefly in my car at a rest stop when I was an auditor, but otherwise it’s never been an option. I was actually the most popular operator with clients and management due to the fact that I was never, ever asleep during my shift and was always able to answer calls within 3 rings. All overnight operators worked solo.
At my last tech job I lived in the same building as my office, a 5 story brownstone where 2 1/2 floors were offices and 2 1/2 were apartments. I never took a nap, but did once tell my assistant to go crash on my couch for his lunch hour. He was not feeling well but didn’t want to go home.
Other: I would, and I daresay it would be permitted, but it would be futile, as I work in an open-plan office and someone would undoubtedly wake me up to ask me something. It’s the reason I never spend my lunch break at my desk - or I just end up working it instead.
At one time when I had a more active nocturnal social life I would occasionally take a nap at my workbench during lunch to make up for staying out all night. At my workbench I sat on a tall chair, kinda like a stool but with a back rest and a foot rail. When my alarm went off and it was time to get back to work, I slipped down off my chair to stand up but found that one of my legs had fallen asleep. The leg buckled under me and I hit the floor with a thud. That was the last time I slept at my workbench.
I have on occasion gone out to my car to rest for a bit. Generally that’s only if I’ve been ridiculously shorting myself on sleep, though.
I used to have a co-worker from Japan who would take a 20 minute nap every day right after lunch. Right in his cubicle. He was one of our most productive programmers, so nobody ever complained. My understanding is that this is common in Japan, so that’s the work structure he was used to.
I don’t, but I probably should some days. No one would care, and I’d probably be more productive after a 15 minute doze, especially on days when I’m slogging through particularly dense papers. I can’t quite bring myself to do it, though.
This sounds like me before I got my insulin resistance under control. I used to literally fall asleep at my desk within a half-hour of finishing lunch, unless I snuck down to my car and took a nap. If you don’t mind me giving you unsolicited diet advice, try going a couple of days with eating a lunch meal that has no starches or sugars (just meat or fish, non-starchy vegetables, and/or cheese) and see if that affects your energy levels after the meal.
Nowadays, I’d love to take a nap in the afternoons, not because of insulin spikes but because I sleep terribly during the night. But I can’t while at work, and by the time I get home, I suddenly have enough energy to carry me until way past my bedtime.