The pause that refreshes!
In this day and age, and in our line of work, creativity is what it’s all about and usually at a moment’s notice. Whether you’re an animator, editor, art director, project manager or sound designer, it often seems there’s never enough time to make a complete thought. Every minute, we’re jumping back and forth from one project to the next. And our creative mindfulness is being trampled over by the snippets of our day to day minutia, which is then being flung out beyond the beyond. But somehow we still keep our creativity in play.
I wholeheartedly feel we should be focusing on what is unquestionably more important, truly meaningful and vastly underrated for our overall creative process: napping. Yes napping. I know, I know- you never wanted to take one when you were young, but now I think most people would jump at the chance to take a snooze in the middle of the day.
Ah the siesta! Spain and many other Hispanic cultures have had it going on for centuries. They’ve basked in the knowledge that at a certain time of day there would be a collective sigh when everyone relaxed. Pencils down!
They’ve also influenced other countries such as Italy and the Philippines to get on the nap train. But now, the Japanese have taken the nap to a science. Their research has shown that professionals, young and old, who take mid-day naps, can greatly increase their overall creativity and learning power.
Their findings suggest that naps help our brains to solve problems by boosting creative thinking. Researchers have also found that during naps, the brain's right hemisphere is extremely active. Ultimately, naps might be an important opportunity for the brain's right hemisphere to engage in certain key "housecleaning" tasks, such as memory consolidation.
Power napping is now a trend more noticeable in Japan than ever. Napping Salons are scattered throughout all the major cities. One of the first, called Napia, now has over fifteen hundred members. That’s a lot of snoring going on.
Early on, when salons first opened, people would sneak away from their work to visit them. But now gaining acceptance, it’s not uncommon for groups from the same company to arrive for some quality shut eye.
Office workers usually visit local salons at lunch time, and take a fifteen to twenty minute nap in custom pods. It normally costs something equal to $4.50. Not too bad, when you think that’s what you or I would frequently spend for a cup of coffee to jolt us back on track.
You know, the unfortunate part is, I really don’t think I’ll ever see the Napping Salon rage take hold here in Cincinnati. We’ve just recently become comfortable ordering sushi. Who knows when we’ll feel relaxed enough to lay down in the middle of the day with complete strangers …creatively speaking.
