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Comment by elbenshira | Hacker News Reader

A friend and I have this running agreement that if we ever do a startup together, we will force all employees to take a nap after lunch.

As a college student, I understand how useful naps are. Students live in short bursts of concentration during the day (e.g. when in class), and that 30 minute nap between classes is a life saver. Heck, a lot of our conversations involve talking about naps in its intricate details. Like many great entrepreneurs say, the most important features and ideas will be brought up over and over again over time. And napping is one of those great, haunting ideas.

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Not everyone can nap well. I can't sleep in the day. Even when really tired, if I try, I end up half-sleeping, waking up feeling really weird with my heart beating faster than normal. I have fallen asleep before (on a bus or something), but basically always on accident and never when I try to.

Although I guess there are probably few enough people like me that excluding us won't really harm you, it still seems over-the-top to require it. And yes, I imagine you were exaggerating, but just saying.

I find myself in the same position. I wish naps were more effective for me because I tend to hit a slump around 2:30 or 3PM, but I find that when I nap, I wake up feeling dehydrated, confused, and in a surprisingly bad mood.

It's probably because you wake up when you're in REM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_sleep). The key is to wake up before you hit REM. I wake up after 30 minutes because I usually will hit REM if I nap for longer.

So do you just always get up after 30 minutes, even if you don't fall asleep for 10 or 15? I find the idea of timing the wakeup difficult otherwise. I guess WakeMate or a similar device might help.

It took me a while, but now one of two things happen during my naps:

1) I don't ever fall asleep. So it's mostly just resting and relaxing with my eyes closed.

2) I fall asleep 10 minutes into the 30 minutes and wake exactly one minute before my alarm rings. My body somehow learned to do this, probably because the alarm sound is so painful. But I can tell that I wake up (I'm not sure who "I" is; it's more of a subconscious thing) right before I fall into a REM sleep.

Cool. I may have to give this a try.

We obviously won't force people to take naps, but I want an atmosphere where napping (or just resting) is encouraged and not looked down upon.

And you're right, sometimes I can't fall asleep during my naps, but that's OK for me. Then I just make it into a relaxing/meditation session.

"30 minute nap between classes" -- heh, that's not how I remember it :) I had one class right after lunch, on Special Relativity. I was interested in the subject (it was an elective), but the lecturer's voice was quite monotonous and I rarely stayed awake through the whole class...

In my case, it was Introduction to Computer Science - I slept through the entire class and still aced it, having been introduced to computer science in puberty - but it was right after lunch with the worst lecturer in the department.

They were sweet naps, though.

I have never really napped during my time here in college, but it sounds intriguing. I have always looked as time as a bit of a commodity and napping seemed like a way to lose a chunk of the day.

Lose 45 minutes (30 min nap + 15 min setup/teardown) for oh so much more energy for the rest of the day? It might not work out for you, but try it for a week!

Force? As in medication for those who don't naturally want to sleep then?

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