An Ode to Napping

Rest for productivity vs. rest for its own sake

Today’s edition of Wishful Working is a 2 minute read.

I love napping. 

I don’t nap every day, but I usually fit a few naps in each week. In fact, I’m writing this newsletter not long after waking up from a nap.

For most of my adult life, naps were relegated to weekends, but that all changed in early 2020. When I first began working from home during Covid, I started napping. What I did on my lunch break was none of my employer’s business, I reasoned, so I occasionally sacked out for 30-60 minutes over the noon hour. 

I assume every remote worker has done this 😂 

Apparently, some employers even encourage napping in the office and provide napping rooms or nap pods for employees to use for a snooze.

Person using a futuristic napping pod, a recliner chair with a large pacman shaped seat with a cover

There’s something…dystopian about the nap pod, and I’m uneasy about the concept of employer-sanctioned napping. 

MetroNaps, maker of the above nap pod, says on their website: “Allowing employees to take a short 15-20 minute nap is an easy and effective way to boost alertness and productivity.” Elsewhere on their site is the tagline “Getting The Most Out Of Your Day.” 

Basically, the corporate nap pod concept seems less like a perk and more like a red flag — a way to wring more productivity out of overworked employees and subtly encourage burnout rather than address the root causes of workplace exhaustion. Rest assured (no pun intended), employers wouldn’t encourage napping unless they thought it would ultimately boost their bottom line. 

Unfortunately, I can’t find much information about the actual use of nap pods beyond a few anecdotal reviews, but I did find this exchange on Reddit which nicely sums up my feelings:

Main post: Who would like a nap pod in their workplace?

Hambone1138: I'd rather have a job with a reasonable work-life balance that didn't necessitate having a nap pod.

Amen, Hambone1138.

I obviously do not have a nap pod in my home.

I’m an avid sofa-napper and occasionally a bed-napper, and I’ll admit, sometimes I do nap for productivity purposes. But since becoming a freelancer, my attitude toward rest has shifted.

I do not rest so that I can hustle, work harder, and be more productive.

I do not take vacations so that I can be recharged and ready to get back to work.

Sleep, relaxation, and leisure are not means to an end, and they are not something to be earned. 

😮‍💨

So here’s to napping. May we nap for the pure pleasure of it. 🥂

See you next week,

Kara 🥱