Japanese firms encourage daytime naps

Imagine working for an employer who, aware that you’re probably not sleeping enough at night, allows you to down tools and nap as part of your regular work 【小题1】 -- and not just forty winks at your desk, but a restorative snooze in a quiet room.

These are some of the measures being used by a growing number of companies in Japan to counter an epidemic of sleeplessness that costs its economy a(n) 【小题2】 $ 138 bn a year.

Tech startups have been quickest to 【小题3】the “sleep debt” among irritable and unproductive employees. Last year, Nextbeat, an TT service provider, went as far as setting up two “strategic sleeping rooms” -- one for men, the other for women -- at its headquarters in Tokyo. The aroma-infused rooms 【小题4】 devices that block out background noise, allowing workers to stretch out on sofas for a(n) 【小题5】 nap. Mobile phones, tablets and laptops are banned.

“Napping can do as much to improve someone’s 【小题6】as a balanced diet and exercise,” Emiko Sumikawa, a member of the Nextbeat board, told Kyodo news agency.

Nextbeat also asks employees to leave work by 9 pm and to avoid doing excessive overtime, which has been 【小题7】 for a rising rate of death from overwork.

Japanese workers have more reason than most to submit to （服从）the 【小题8】 for a daytime snooze, whether at work or during long commutes.

A survey conducted using fitness trackers in 28 countries found that Japanese men and women sleep, on average, just 6 hours and 35 minutes a night -- 45 minutes less than the international average -- making them the most sleep-deprived of all. Estonians, Canadians, Belgians, Austrians, as well as the Dutch and French, all get a comparatively decent night’s sleep, according to the survey.

The government has also come to appreciate the 【小题9】 of a well-rested workforce, with the health ministry recommending that all working-age people take a nap of up to 30 minutes in the early afternoon -- advice 【小题10】 embraced by some of the country’s politicians.