Company announces 30-minute nap break for employees every day with 'right to nap' policy

There's hardly anyone who hasn't felt the need for a power nap in the middle of a demanding day at work. However, most people soldier on with a hearty dose of caffeine to counter that mid-afternoon fatigue. An Indian startup is taking steps to execute a much healthier solution for its employees with its "right to nap" policy. Wakefit, a D2C home-and-sleep solutions startup, announced this exciting new scheme on May 5 in an official statement to its employees by Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, the company's director and co-founder.

"We have been in the business of sleep for over six years now, and yet, have failed to do justice to a crucial aspect of rest—the afternoon nap," Ramalingegowda wrote in the internal email. "We have always taken naps seriously, but starting today, we will be taking things up a notch." Citing studies that suggested afternoon naps are linked to better performance and productivity, he continued: "A NASA study reveals that a 26-minute catnap can enhance performance by 33%, while a Harvard study shows how naps prevent burnout." According to Business Insider, the NASA study mentioned by Ramalingegowda showed that a short nap of 26 minutes can fully restore cognitive function at the same rate as a full night's sleep.

"Napping leads to improvements in mood, alertness and performance [such as] reaction time, attention, and memory," Kimberly Cote, Ph.D, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brock University, who co-authored a similar study with researcher Catherine Milner, told the publication in 2019. "Longer naps will allow you to enter deeper sleep, which will contribute to the grogginess - also called sleep inertia - experienced upon awakening and disrupt nighttime sleep." In his email, Ramalingegowda announced that in light of this scientific evidence, Wakefit has decided to normalize naps.

"Keeping these in mind, we have decided to normalize afternoon naps at work and declare 2 to 2.30 pm as official nap time for all our employees. From now on, you will have the right to nap between 2 to 2.30 pm. Your calendar will be blocked during this time as official nap time. We are also working towards creating cozy nap pods and quiet rooms in the office to build the perfect nap environment for you. Looking forward to catching you sleeping at work," he concluded. According to Business Today, the "right to nap" policy announcement received an overwhelming response from Wakefit employees who took to social media platforms to express their appreciation of the landmark policy.

"An afternoon nap is instrumental in helping the body recharge and refocus on the task at hand, thus improving workplace productivity and motivation. Conversations around afternoon naps became predominant with the advent of work-from-home, and companies are slowly but steadily realizing its importance. Through this initiative, the company hopes to start a sleep revolution while also encouraging other companies to adopt the initiative," Wakefit said in an official statement. "Through this initiative, we aim to focus on our employees' well-being, while also fostering a culture that strongly encourages self-care. We also urge other brands to join us in this effort to promote a healthy lifestyle for their employees." Wakefit isn't the first to bring such a policy into practice. According to Sleep.org, Google, Facebook, Ben & Jerry's, Cisco, Zappos and Uber are some of the companies that not only allow but encourage employee naps.