Sleep & Inemuri
Very few folks are getting enough sleep, that’s certainly clear. There are different ways to cope with chronic tiredness, though the time pressure in most jobs (anything from studenthood to parenthood to careerhood) is rather intense. It’s interesting to see how the Japanese culture has adapted:
Napping at work isn’t acceptable in the UK, but in Japan dozing anywhere from Parliament to business meetings is allowed. It’s called inemuri, which literally means “to be asleep while present”.
The custom is partly a result of how commitment to a job is judged in Japan, says Dr Brigitte Steger. Inemuri is viewed as exhaustion from working hard and sacrificing sleep at night. Many people fake it to look committed to their job.
It’s a concept that seems bizarre in the UK but the Japanese are the ones who’ve got it right, says Dr Stanley.
“The Japanese are right in their assessment that you work better after a nap than before it. There’s a degree of machismo about it, you’re saying look how hard I’ve worked. But that’s better than the macho rituals we have over here, like how late you can send a work email to prove how long you’ve been working.”
Strict rules apply to inemuri. These include who is allowed to do it - only those high up or low down in a company - and how you do it - remain upright to show you are still socially engaged in some way.
“The rules are written nowhere but everyone knows them, they learn them culturally,” says Dr Steger.
Given the classic siesta, traditionally practiced by those in “China, India, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Malta, The Middle East and North Africa,” you would think that the United States could follow the sleep patterns of other countries and change for the better.
Then again, the US isn’t too accomplished at complying with the worldwide status quo.
Comments
Sagert
I need to point this out to my bosses.