別怕得罪老板，上班時間打個盹吧

In the past two weeks I’ve taken three naps at work, a total of an hour or so of shut-eye while on the clock. And I have no shame or uncertainty about doing it. I couldn’t feel better about it, and my productivity reflects it, too.

過去兩周，我在工作時間小睡了三次，在公司支付薪金的時間里閉眼休息了總共大約一個小時。我沒有為此感到羞愧，也沒有猶豫我應不應該這樣做。我對此感覺好極了，我的工作效率也反映了這一點。

Sleeping on the job is one of those workplace taboos — like leaving your desk for lunch or taking an afternoon walk — that we’re taught to look down on. If someone naps at 2 p.m. while the rest of us furiously write memos and respond to emails, surely it must mean they’re slacking off. Or so the assumption goes.

工作時間睡覺是職場禁忌之一，就像離開你的辦公桌去吃午飯或者下午散個步，都是我們被教育要鄙視的行為。如果當我們其他人都在瘋狂地寫備忘錄和回復郵件，某個人在下午2點小睡一會，當然這肯定意味著這個人相比起來沒有那么努力工作?；蛘叽蠹視J為這個人是這樣的。

Restfulness and recharging can take a back seat to the perception and appearance of productivity. It’s easier to stay on a virtual hamster wheel of activity by immediately responding to every email than it is to measure aggregate productivity over a greater period of time. But a growing field of occupational and psychological research is building the case for restfulness in pursuit of greater productivity.

與給人高效的感受和表象相比，休息一下，給身體充電會顯得不那么重要。保持倉鼠轉輪般的機械勞動，馬上回復每一封郵件比較容易，衡量一段較長時間里的合計生產(chǎn)率比較難。但是，越來越多的職業(yè)和心理研究正在為休息正名，認為這是為了追求更高生產(chǎn)率的做法。

“Companies are suffering from tremendous productivity problems because people are stressed out” and not recovering from the workday, said Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder of Bersin by Deloitte. “They’re beginning to realize that this is their problem, and they can’t just say to people, ‘Here’s a work-life balance course, go teach yourself how to manage your inbox,’ ” Mr. Bersin said. “It’s way more complicated than that.”

“很多公司因為職工過度工作緊張，沒有從工作日中恢復過來，面臨嚴重生產(chǎn)率問題的困擾，”德勤貝辛(Bersin by Deloitte)的總監(jiān)和創(chuàng)始人喬希·貝辛(Josh Bersin)說。“這些公司開始意識到這是他們的問題，他們不能告訴職工，‘這是平衡你的工作和生活的課程，自學一下該怎么管理你的收件箱吧。’”貝辛說，“事情其實復雜得多。”

To be sure, the ability to nap at work is far from widespread, experts said. Few among us have the luxury of being able to step away for a half-hour snoozefest. But lunch hours and coffee breaks can be great times to duck out, and your increased productivity and alertness will be all the evidence you need to make your case to inquiring bosses.

專家們說，誠然，在工作時間小睡并不是打工族普遍能夠做到的。幾乎沒有誰享有中斷工作半小時甜美小睡一下的奢侈。但是午餐和咖啡休息可以是很好的逃走一下的時間。如果老板盤問，你完全有理由自辯：工作效率提高，注意力更集中，這都是你的有利證據(jù)。

In an ideal world, we’d all solve this problem by unplugging early and getting a good night’s sleep. Here’s our guide on how to do just that. But the next best thing is stealing away for a quick power nap when you’re dragging after lunch.

在一個理想的世界里，我們都可以通過早一點結束一天的工作、安享一夜好眠來解決這個問題。這有一份指南，教你如何做到這一點。但是退而求其次，當你吃完午飯感到疲勞的時候，你可以溜走一會兒，去做片刻恢復能量的小睡。

(The Japanese even have a word for strategically sleeping on the job: “inemuri,” roughly translated to “sleeping while present.” Now is a good moment to pause and email this story to your boss.)

(日本人甚至有一個專門的詞，用來形容在工作中經(jīng)過運籌的小睡：“居眠”，大致翻譯過來就是“在工作崗位上睡覺”。現(xiàn)在你就不妨暫停一下，把這篇文章發(fā)給你的老板。)

In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers tested subjects on their perceptual performance four times throughout the day. Performance deteriorated with each test, but subjects who took a 30-minute nap between tests stopped the deterioration in performance, and those who took a 60-minute nap even reversed it.

在一篇發(fā)表在《自然神經(jīng)科學》(Nature Neuroscience)的研究里，研究員們在一天中四次測試研究對象的感知表現(xiàn)。他們的感知能力隨著每一個測試的進行而逐漸衰弱，但是在兩個測試之間進行30分鐘小睡的研究對象的感知能力會停止惡化，而那些打盹60分鐘的人的感知能力甚至變得更好。

“Naps had the same magnitude of benefits as full nights of sleep if they had a specific quality of nap,” said Sara Mednick, a co-author of the study and associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside.

“如果能達到一定的睡眠質量，那么小睡可以有和整夜的睡眠一樣大的好處，”這個研究的合著者以及加州大學河濱分校的心理學副教授薩拉·梅德尼克(Sara Mednick)說。

Dr. Mednick, a sleep researcher and the author of “Take a Nap! Change Your Life,” said daytime napping can have many of the benefits of overnight sleep, and different types of naps offer specific benefits.

梅德尼克是睡眠研究專家和《打個盹!改變你的人生》(Take a Nap! Change Your Life)的作者。她認為，白天的小睡可以收到很多晚上睡眠的好處，而且不同類型的小睡各有特定的益處。

For example, Dr. Mednick said a 20- to 60-minute nap might help with memorization and learning specific bits of information. It’s just long enough to enter stage-two sleep, or non-rapid eye movement (R.E.M.) sleep.

比如，梅德尼克說，一次20到60分鐘的小睡可能幫助記憶和學習一些特定的信息。這種小睡的長度剛好足以讓你進入二級睡眠階段，也就是“非快速動眼睡眠”。

After 60 minutes, you start getting into R.E.M. sleep, most often associated with that deep, dreaming state we all enjoy at night. R.E.M. sleep can improve creativity, perceptual processing and highly associative thinking, which allows you to make connections between disparate ideas, Dr. Mednick said. Beyond that, your best bet is a 90-minute nap, which will give you a full sleep cycle.

60分鐘之后，你開始進入“快速動眼睡眠”階段(REM睡眠)。多數(shù)情況下，這種睡眠階段和我們夜晚享受的那種深度、有夢的睡眠狀態(tài)有關聯(lián)。梅德尼克說，REM睡眠可以提高創(chuàng)造性，感知的處理和高度聯(lián)想式思考，它們讓你能夠把不相干的想法聯(lián)系起來。如果有更長的時間，你最好的選擇是90分鐘的小睡，它可以給你一個完整的睡覺周期。

Any nap, however, can help with alertness and perception and cut through the general fog that creeps in during the day, experts said.

但是專家表示，任何一種小睡都有助于提高注意力和感知力，打破一天中漸漸襲來的朦朧困意。

So how did we even arrive at this point where aptitude is inextricably tied to working long, concentrated hours? Blame technology, but think broader than smartphones and laptops; the real issue is that tech has enabled us to be available at all times.

我們的聰明才智被牢牢地捆綁在長時間、精神高度集中的工作上面，我們是怎么走到這一步的?這得怪科技，但不只是智能手機和手提電腦;真正的問題是，科技讓我們隨時可以被聯(lián)系到。

“We went through a period where people were in denial and business leaders were ignoring it,” Mr. Bersin said. “They were assuming that if we give people more tools, more emails, more Slack, more chatter, and we’ll just assume they can figure out how to deal with it all. And I think they’ve woken up to the fact that this is a big problem, and it is affecting productivity, engagement, health, safety, wellness and all sorts of things.”

“有那么一個階段，人們都不承認這一點，商業(yè)領袖忽略了這個問題，”貝辛說。“他們設想如果我們給人們更多的工具、更多的郵件、更多Slack(一個社交工具——譯注)、更多聊天工具，我們就認為他們會想出辦法來處理所有這些工作。我認為他們已經(jīng)醒悟，意識到這是一個大問題，它在影響效率、參與度、身體健康、安全、全面健康和所有各種各樣的方面。”

It isn’t just office workers who can benefit from an afternoon siesta. A 2015 study published in Current Biology looked at the sleeping habits of three hunter-gatherer preindustrial societies in Tanzania, Namibia and Bolivia.

不僅僅是辦公室的工作人員可以受益于一個下午的小睡。一個發(fā)表在《當代生物學》(Current Biology)的2015年的研究調查了三個未經(jīng)歷工業(yè)化的狩獵采集社會的睡眠習慣，分別在坦桑尼亞、納米比亞和玻利維亞。

“They’re active in the morning, then they get in the shade under the trees and have a sort of quiet time, but they’re not generally napping,” said Jerome Siegel, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, and director of the U.C.L.A. Center for Sleep Research, a co-author of the study. “Then they do some work and go to sleep, and they sleep through the night.”

“他們上午活躍，然后他們會在樹蔭下休息一段時間，但是他們一般并不午睡，”加利福尼亞大學洛杉磯分校睡眠研究中心的主任、精神病學和生物行為科學的教授杰羅姆·西格爾(Jerome Siegel)說。他也是這個研究的合著者。“然后他們繼續(xù)勞動，之后開始睡覺。他們整個晚上都用來睡眠。”

Still, Mr. Siegel said the only genuine way to solve daytime sleepiness and fatigue starts the night before with a solid night’s sleep. The real Holy Grail of restfulness is a regular sleep schedule with ideally seven or eight hours of sleep each night, which experts say is optimal.

不過，西格爾也認為，解決白天困乏的唯一真正辦法是前一天晚上一整晚踏實的睡眠。要想得到良好的休息，真正的解決方案是有規(guī)律的睡眠，最好每晚七到八個小時。專家說這是最理想的。

“Daytime napping certainly does increase alertness,” Mr. Siegel said. “But it’s not as simple as going to the gas station and filling the tank.”

“白天的小睡當然使人精神振作，”西格爾說。“但是這不像去加油站把油箱加滿那么簡單。”

He also advises avoiding caffeine late in the day and waking around the same time every morning, even if you can’t get to sleep at the same time every night. This helps acclimate your body to your regular wake-up time, regardless of how much sleep you got the night before.

他還建議，白天太晚的時候避免攝入咖啡因，每天早上大概同樣的時間起床，即使你不能在每晚的同一時間入睡。這有助于你的身體適應你有規(guī)律的醒來時間，不管你前一晚睡了多久。

So if you’ve made it this far and you’re interested in giving workday naps a try (or just starting to nod off), here’s a quick guide to the perfect nap:

說到這兒，如果你有興趣嘗試一下工作日午睡(或者只是開始打個盹)，以下是幫助你實現(xiàn)完美小睡的一個快速指南：

• Find a quiet, unoccupied space where you won’t be disturbed.

• 找一個安靜、沒有被占據(jù)的、你也不會被打擾的地方。

• Try to make your area as dim as possible (or invest in a sleep mask you can keep in the office). Earplugs might help, too.

• 讓周圍環(huán)境盡可能昏暗(或者買一個睡眠眼罩放在辦公室)。耳塞也會有幫助。

• Aim for around 20 minutes. Any longer than that and you’re likely to wake up with sleep inertia, which will leave you even groggier than before.

• 把目標設定為小睡20分鐘左右。如果睡得再長，就可能醒來之后無精打采，結果比睡之前更加疲乏。