Take a Power Nap Officially!

It’s people like me who fostered the need for midnight malls. Now, I would proudly take due credit for boosting midnight retail and the India shining story but the late nights at work have started showing up in embarrassing ways.

I emailed the CEO one night only to realize the next morning that ‘besides’ had been spelt ‘bedside’. Thankfully, he understands that by 11 pm my brains start hibernating and Freudian slips give away my immediate priorities.

Again, hitting the head on the computer while innocently nodding off post-lunch is not uncommon in our office. No sweat. We have a well-stocked first aid kit.

Don’t get me wrong. We are among the most talented, hardworking employees anyone can find but post-lunch drowsiness affects us pretty much as it would others. In fact, I’m pretty sure other offices have their own stories.

Even so, the last time the office went into sleep mode, it prompted my quest for a constructive analysis of our collective and, seemingly, contagious post-lunch lassitude vis-à-vis that of other offices.

Didn’t exactly find a comparative tool for community sleep sessions but here’s where you can find out your individual Sleepiness Quotient. And, if you’re particularly empathetical towards the cause and want to chart how quickly you fall asleep during quiet daytime situations, you can take a Multiple Sleep Latency Test. You can even participate in an MWT Study to see how alert you are during the day.

Just make sure your boss doesn’t get his/her hands on these. And if s/he does, you can always suggest in-office installations of Metronaps sleep pods. Take a look at what some lucky souls do post-lunch:

They sleep - in specially designed sleeping pods! Now, nap parlors in offices are not unheard of, even in India. But yes, they're rare. The first time I saw a nap lounge at an office - replete with recliner chairs, couches and drawn shades - I remained in awe of the company's management for days. And, it was not even an American company with fancy new-age HR policies. This was a traditional Indian manufacturing giant.

As for us, we don’t have state-of-the-art sleep pod installations in our office. But, we do have a sunlit terrace where we bask in the afternoon sun with our coffee mugs - nothing to do with the Bombay winters, more to do with the powerful air conditioning.

The terrace is our favorite haunt but the pods would be lovely with a capital L. Our office needs these. In fact, they’ll be a big hit in India. Actually, given that a Metronaps co-founder happens to be of Indian origin, why is this business still out of India?

Either way, it’s amazing that someone is making money out of this. Metronaps has spread operations over three continents in just two years. So, these guys must be making a lot of money putting people to sleep during office hours.

Now, why didn't I think of this? And why didn’t I know of this when I used to be an incurable insomniac. Anyway, since my sleep scene has swiveled on its head, maybe I should get into the ‘Wake-up’ business. I could have a state-of-the-art Wake-up Pod designed and start a service for sleepy employees, late night flyers and who have you. Perhaps, I could nicely complement that with my own chain of ‘Afternoon Coffee Bars’. It’s one helluva business idea and nobody take it or I’ll sue you!

Well! Post-lunch is for day dreaming too. And that’s what I’m doing right now. Time to get back to work.

By the way, March 12 2007, the first Monday after the beginning of daylight savings time is this year's National Napping Day. The power nap is official now! Enjoy!