How long is the ideal nap?
Air traffic controllers in the US have been advised to take 26-minute naps, after a string of incidents involving workers falling asleep. So is 26 minutes the ideal length of time for a nap? Five cases of air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job have been revealed since March. In three of those cases, disclosed by the Federal Aviation Association, workers have been fired.
Now the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling for “controlled naps” to be built into night shifts. Referring to a 1995 study from Nasa, which he co-authored, NTSB member and fatigue expert Mark Rosekind said that a 26-minute nap would improve performance by 34% and alertness by 54%. There was other supporting evidence that said naps of between 20 minutes and 30 minutes were beneficial, he said. His call for work naps is supported by the controllers’ union, which wants naps to be allowed in both overnight and day shifts.
Beyond the aviation industry, combating fatigue is an issue that affects many people across all professions, working day and night, although it carries obvious risks in jobs that involve motoring or machinery. But other experts are doubtful that 26 minutes is the optimum napping time. It’s a bit too long and risks you falling into a deep sleep, says Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Council in the UK, which advises the government on guidelines for drivers.
“What we recommend is that a nap is combined with a cup of coffee so you have some caffeine, and that takes about 20 minutes to kick in. “Have a cup of coffee and get your head down. Done together it has a more powerful effect.” It probably works out that a nap of about 15 minutes is best, he says, because once you get beyond 20 minutes, you risk a deep sleep and you can be much more groggy when you wake up. “A lot of people take caffeine after they wake up, but you have a window of opportunity of 20 minutes, so it will help you wake up. It works, there’s no doubt about it.”
People can’t instantly fall asleep, so it’s impossible to exactly time how long you will be asleep, he says. But even 15 minutes of dozing is beneficial. “At least by having caffeine, you know that in 20 minutes you will feel more alert.”
If you haven’t had a wink of sleep the night before, then this tactic won’t be enough to refresh you, says Mr Horne, but for those that have had merely a poor night’s sleep, it will work. Longer naps would work if they became part of your daily routine, he says, because your body would get used to it and could wake up quite easily without feeling too groggy.
Health writer Linda Wasmer Andrews, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, also believes 26 minutes is too long. She says a nap of between 10 and 20 minutes is enough. The timing of the nap is also important, she says. Putting your head down too early means your body may not be ready to sleep yet, but a nap that is too late in the day might make it harder to fall asleep come bedtime. Early afternoon is often the best time, between 1-3pm, she says, when people experience a post-lunch dip in energy.
Whatever the best strategy is, it’s unlikely that the US air traffic controllers will be adopting any such tactics soon. Transport Secretary Ray LaHood has dismissed the proposal for on-the-job naps to be implemented in the aviation industry. He said workers would not be paid to sleep, and instead ordered for more managers be hired to supervise nightshift workers and ensure they don’t fall asleep on the job.
The Saker
Those who are dependent on holding down a job to make ends meet, that is the vast majority of the population, are indeed wage slaves. As an individual you have very little bargaining power with an employer and the whole point of unions is to get a better deal on wages and conditions by bargaining collectively. The sad thing is that a majority of wage slaves in America have been brainwashed into thinking unions as quasi communist and un American.
The boss class in Europe is doing its best to copy the US though, especially neocons like Sarkozy. The key is to make the poor in low paid jobs resent the even poorer on welfare rather than unite against the boss class.
You can see this mentality at work in any retail store. You will rarely see a chair at a cashier’s station anywhere. Checkout girls are expected to stand all day with few breaks, even if they don’t have any customers. Rather than let them sit down in between customers, they are expected to stand up and look busy lest some hypothetical customer feels he is not getting proper “service.”
Forgetting the ethics of this kind of treatment, the resulting exhaustion makes the workers less productive, and the physical strain increases the likelihood of injury and disability claims. I recently talked to a young checkout girl who was told she would be fired if she got caught cocking her leg to rest it, or leaning forward on the counter to transfer the weight on to her arms for a second. She was expected to stand straight all day with both feet planted on the ground, like a Grenadier Guard.
Capitalism is as much a philosophy of life as a politico-economic system. Even leftists make the mistake of thinking that capitalism is all about maximizing profits. That’s part of it, of course, but it is mostly about power and control. Once you have all the goodies you want, what use does anyone have of more wealth other than to use it to exert power over others? The exercise of power is such a potent drug men have destroyed nations to enjoy it.
This also explains the American elite’s pathological need to dominate and control the countries that it draws its resources from, while the more pragmatic Chinese seem content to deal with whoever happens to be in power. This dominance isn’t necessary to protect profits, but is an end in itself.
@Sean: Capitalism is as much a philosophy of life as a politico-economic system. Even leftists make the mistake of thinking that capitalism is all about maximizing profits. That’s part of it, of course, but it is mostly about power and control.
YES!! Absolutely. There are so few people who see that – you really made my day Sean!
About retail stores: do you know that in Switzerland the checkout girls actually sit on a rotating chair with adjustable hight and back? It is amazing to see how something quite unthinkable in country A is common and banal in country B. Also – people bag their own goods because it would cost too much to hire a food bagger.
Another uniquely American thing: people who sand along the roads with a sign in their hands, or dressed up like some kind of mascot, or waving some kind of “cheap pizza” sign. Absolutely unthinkable in most of Europe were it would not attract customers, but turn then off (they would that kind of “job” for it is: using people as an object – a sign post in this case).
On the whole my (subjective) impression is that Americans are by and large kinder, friendlier and more generous than Europeans (I know – generalizations are always bad, but I will leave this one). It’s the US system which is totally, absolutely and terminally FUBARed.
But yes, I came to the very strong belief that capitalism, as a worldview, ideology, social reality and economic system, is inherently evil. It works hand in hand with alter ego – Fascism- but does not have the courage to show its true face. Speaking of which: there ain’t such thing with “capitalism with a human face” to paraphrase Dubček.
@Robert: The boss class in Europe is doing its best to copy the US though
Yes, I know, and it brakes my heart. It also enrages me. Add to this that the European Left is more or less a big joke, and that Eastern Europe only makes that worse, and the “prognosis is very poor” as MDs like to say.
As regards Europe and the EU, it was probably always a mistake for Britain to join. Had we listened to de Gaulle and stayed out Paris and Berlin might have succeeded in setting up the federal state by the mid Nineties based on a Rhineland model of capitalism rather than the Anglo American free market. There were moves to set up European company law which would have provided for workers representation on the board, but the UK government killed it. It is not surprising that Washington supported British membership of Europe, our government has consistently succeeded in lowering standards on behalf of big business.
I agree with you about Eastern Europe. Enlargement was supported by the British government for the good reason that British conservatives now have allies among the reactionary East European countries who are hostile to the left and instinctively pro American because of their resentment at Soviet rule. The whole aim was to weaken and dilute Europe. Paris and Berlin should never have allowed either Britain or Poland to join until the social democratic federal state had been established. It could then have forced the East Europeans to stop undercutting them with lower standards of welfare and workers rights by restricting access to the West European market.
De Gaulle was right. England has been nothing more than a Trojan Horse