Naps will get you more productivity, more money and major awards, new study shows
Are you at work? Are you tired?
Go lie down. Go take a nap.
Don't think about if it's OK, don't listen to your boss (they should just go have a nap, too), don't worry about what others might think of you. They want to nap, you want to nap, I definitely want to nap. And now, a recent baseball study shows that it's very beneficial for you and your career.
Nelson Cruz, a man who's now played 15 years in the Major Leagues, just won the most prestigious award at his position. He's also done it at the age of 39 -- when most baseball players become full-time fishermen or resort to playing baseball against groups of third-graders. Instead, Cruz has defied his age and will likely continue to hit bombs until there are no more bombs left to hit.
How has he done it? Naps. He naps. He's done it for most of his baseball-playing life, but has amped it up even more in his late-30s. Whether he's home or away or in transit on the road, he finds the time. He knows how important it is for his success.
“Twenty-five minutes,” he said. “Research tells you that power naps are the best. You wake up with a lot of energy. It’s like a boost.”
Yeah, I'd say there's a bit of a boost here.
The Twins, the team that signed him last year and gave him another $12 million to stick around in 2020, have also embraced the power of the nap -- building the slugger his own nap room where he can get some private shut-eye. His boss, manager Rocco Baldelli, avidly supports the idea of getting a good midday sleep. From The Athletic:
At Cruz’s request, the Twins installed a room for naps at Target Field. Cruz is zealous about pregame shut-eye. That fit within the contours of Baldelli’s devotion to rest and recovery, cutting down on unnecessary activities that sap players of energy, like sleep lost on early buses to the ballpark or the hours wasted under the sun during infield practice.
If a nap room isn't available, Cruz will improvise. He knows how important they are.
Downstairs here in Balt Nelson Cruz is taking his daily nap in the middle of the clubhouse. A favorite sight in all my years covering the #Mariners. Grabs a stack of towels, covers himself in them on the couch & grabs 30 min of restorative Zs regardless of the scene around him.
— Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) June 28, 2018
Now, I understand this isn't an actual "study" with placebos and rats and real data. But it is real life. It's something that you and I can see play out in front of us. How can we not believe it?
Nelson Cruz likes to nap, his team (company) bought into the napping idea, Cruz had, perhaps, his best year ever at nearly 40 years of age. He won major awards, got paid, has the respect of everyone in the league and the Twins finished in first place in their division.
Naps = success. Unbounded, limitless success for everyone involved.
So, if you accidentally fall asleep during a big meeting and embarrassingly crash down off the conference table knocking over coffees and computers, or you just want to plead the case for what a good nap can do for your workplace development -- tell your supervisor the Nelson Cruz story. Show them the results. Make them watch this video.
If they don't want this kind of train-wrecking, home run-smashing productivity, I don't know what they want.
Matt Monagan is a writer for MLB.com.
