Pillows to help workers snooze at desk | Hacker News Reader

Pillows to help workers snooze at desk

mainichi.jp

92 pointsthunderbong85 comments

I remember when we had a dedicated nap room at work, it was really nice and a ten min nap would greatly improve my productivity for the 2nd half of the day.

At one point the new VP of Eng, who was fairly old, joked that "I should be the only one taking naps."

They later put pingpong etc in the room and turned the lights back on.

Stupid.

Anyway always happy to see companies embracing naps. Much better than constant caffeine.

Facebook had napping rooms. Saved my life a couple times

I worked somewhere that had a pool table and a futon.

They got rid of the futon because they didn't want to be seen as a sweatshop.

What's the connection between futons and sweatshops?

"We work you so hard that you need to sleep here too."

That's BS. Taking nap mid day is healthy.

At my first job out of school my officemate and I had a couch in our office, which was often used for napping by our coworkers (who had individual offices and hence not so suitable furniture).

Politically you just need to call it a "quiet room." Dimmer lights, no keyboards. It's a much easier sell than a nap room and you can still nap in it.

Pretty sure it was called quiet room

In Sweden it’s mandatory[1] that each workplace should have a ”resting room”. Surely, not every workplace has it though.

[1] https://ka-se.translate.goog/2021/06/14/ska-det-finnas-ett-v...

PS. It's unlucky for the translation that toilets are called rest rooms in English speaking countries. :) In Sweden bathroom or rest room is called toalett (toilet).

I was under the impression those are for when someone is ill, but I can't substantiate that.

Do you actually sleep in that room? Like nap nap? I can't imagine being able to fall asleep and wake up within ten minutes

Yes. It takes practice. I set a timer to wake up. See also: coffee nap.

I used to go out to my car and nap in the car during lunch, until I started working at a company that was close enough to not need to drive, and away went my nap time. With WFH, nap time is back on the table and I am a happy man.

So glad I work from home these days. Napping in the office was always uncomfortable -- one shitty cot in a nap room that wasn't always available and where the door didn't even lock. Sometimes I crawled under a desk or behind a cubicle.

And that nap room was considered an amenity! But now I have my own bed, so instead of being a completely miserable and unproductive zombie, I can take a proper nap and then be alert and happy again.

I had a friend that used to go in the staircase in the back of the office after lunch so he could take a nap. IMO that’s the biggest downside of “working”, alongside commute and timezones.

I used to be in an office overlooking Millennium Park in Chicago. when the weather was nice, a 20 min post lunch nap on a park bench did wonders for my productivity. I do miss it, but I have the superpower of being able to instantly sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime.

I was travelling in India earlier this year, and it seems like this is a common superpower there. Two notable cases:

1) Two men in the back of a truck holding up an engine block (one on each side), both fast asleep. I still don't understand how labourers are cheaper than ratchet straps.

2) While waiting for my flight out, there were a few people lying on the concrete floor of the airport, fast asleep.

I have a skeletal deformity in my neck that causes severe cervicogenic headaches. One of the best ways to relieve them is to rest the front of my head on something, or even push against it.

If anyone finds a place these are available in the U.S., please let me know. This could be a game-changer for me where nothing else works well.

https://www.amazon.com/Skyrest-Inflatable-Airplanes-Napping-...

This might be similar

I haven't found inflatable units to offer quite enough support or push back, but I appreciate the suggestion! The one in the article looks to be made of firmer stuff, but I could be wrong.

I have the same issue, and also experience relief by resting the front of my head. It is so bad these headaches often trigger visual artifacts.

I have found that stretching my shoulder joints works well to stop my severe cervicogenic headaches when they are beginning to develop. I need to rotate my shoulders 90 degrees back till they click. My neck gets in place. Sometimes it does not work. Avoiding laptop work decreased the frequency of issues quite dramatically.

Unfortunately my neck doesn't always get in place even when coerced by repetitive 15 psi hammering, and even when aligned well, there's a protrusion that aggravates a nerve that shoots the pain up into the head.

I appreciate the suggestion, though, and I'm glad it works for you!

You may have a weak back, lower trapezius. Perhaps look into superman poses as a way of regaining strength, e.g. https://www.artofliving.org/nl-en/node/329473

Thanks for the suggestion!

If you can find one for sale on a Japanese retailer, there are third-party proxy services you can use to have it shipped to the US. IIRC some are platform-specific (like services for Yahoo! Japan auctions), and the proxy obviously adds to the total price, but it's all legit. I've bought a fair bit of stuff through proxies.

Suggestions for services that you have used would be appreciated.

Unfortunately it's been about a decade since the last time I had anything shipped from Japan, so I don't remember which proxies I used :(

If you're looking for recs, I'd recommend trawling some of the subreddits for figurine collectors or garage kit hobbyists since they're both groups that employ proxy services quite a bit. Any type of otaku group really, lol. They'll almost certainly have some stories to share about good/bad companies.

Tenso. Service agnostic, just use the provided address.

You can use either a forwarding service where you order yourself to an address with a personal code, or a proxy buying service which does the ordering for you.

The big forwarding service would be Tenso: https://www.tenso.com/en

Proxy services include

Buyee - https://buyee.jp/ (though they don't like VPN access)

Noppin - https://noppin.com/

Japan Rabbit - https://japanrabbit.com/

amongst many others.

"The sleeping item will be available at electronics retailers and other stores from Oct. 15."

Keep an eye out - I wonder if Amazon.jp will have them. If so, Amazon Japan often DOES allow you to ship direct to the US and you can just sign into AMZNJP with your .com credential and it'll let you get set up to order from that side.

Otherwise, if you see it somewhere like Bic Camera or otherwise, there's services like Buyee and Zenmarket that can help coordinate getting it into the US. I've used Zenmarket before to buy a Makita cordless microwave from Bildy so I know it works, and I'm way too much of a frequent flyer at Buyee with my Yahoo Auctions habit...

Thank you for these detailed recommendations! I've set a calendar alert to check back then!

Looks like there are all sorts of adjustable massage table headrests on Amazon — perhaps one of them would do the trick?

Most of them are only designed to be attached to a massage table. They don't have independent frames that could sit on a desk. Unless I'm see a whole different set of products than you are?

They look like a massage table, without the rest of the table.

Have you tried massage chair?

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Professional-Light-Weight-Th...

I would, but 1) there's major cost difference, and 2) I can't kneel like most massage chairs are designed (skeletal problems rarely come in isolation).

use a site like dejapan to have it proxied. easy.

Immediately reminded me of Chindōgu [1]. But truly, I want one of these.

[1] https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-...

This product looks like a pro RTO managers wet dream. Fucking gross. As per comments here - just take a regular nap in your own bed/couch. Last time i napped in a common room at work - one of my idiotic co-workers who's never heard of boundaries took pictures of me un-aware.

Big no thanks to nap rooms/or napping at work. It's either a signal your workplace overworks people, or difficult to do as an employee without worrying about judgement. Perhaps seeing your CEO/CTO do it makes it easier. But that's a lot of ifs.

My friends in France complain when they are required to work a few extra minutes more than their contract.

I don't know anything about work culture in Japan, but seeing something like this makes me wonder if Japanese companies are overworking their employees. Even though it is cool, and I totally want one!

I visited the Japanese office of my company once and it struck me how much wasted time people put in the offices. They'd stay at the office super late, but nap for ~hours during the daytime!

I think that there is a cultural pressure to show face and be physically present for a long period of time that is unrelated to actual productivity or performance.

For info on work culture in Japan see https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...

I too would like my own overworked Japanese employee

I googled in Japanese for more information and photos because some people here seemed to be very interested:

https://www.makuake.com/project/atex_makura/

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000168.000033199.html

Theres a lot of cool stuff in the japanese crowdfunding world. Gladly hit me up if you need anything.

Haha I actually sleep in this position when in an airplane. But I use my neck pillow. I might actually buy one of these!

Just landed after red eye flight and connecting and was thinking about this the whole flight

My favorite plane sleeping solution is to tie the arms of a long-sleeved T-shirt behind the headrest such that the body of the shirt hangs in front of your face and the shirt keeps your head from moving. No more nodding and waking yourself up! And bonus darkness!

Do you get a seat in the back row? I can’t picture how to do this without interfering with the seat’s screen, tablet holder or tray table.

The sleeves end up sitting basically at the top of the back of the seat, so they're not in the way. I guess this wouldn't work if you're significantly taller than an airplane seat, like if your whole head is above the top of the back of the seat.

I bring a scarf and knot it under my chin (the normal way: fold in half, wrap around neck, put two loose ends through the loop; but tighter than normal, so the lump sits under the chin just to one side). Provides enough support that my head stays back and doesn't look weird.

So an illustration of the sheer inhumanity of some work environments

Yeah it’s inhumane to work all day 0_o

As a scientific word, work all day is unavoidable.

Jobs that co-opt and expropriate outputs of our own work are the problem.

This, but unironically

You're right, there is certainly nothing in our evolutionary history to suggest that "working all day" is a natural human way of being.

Pretty sure a lot of people worked all day. The difference is they probably slept all night as well.

Pretty sure absolutely none of the "primitive" tribes work all day..

I don't think you have to go back that far. Before electric (and maybe gas lighting) it would be hard to have people working outside of the hours of daylight. Sure you could do some stuff by candlelight but it wasn't cheap if I understand correctly.

This is identical to the Ostrich pillow that was on Kickstarter about 10 years ago. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/studio-banana/ostrich-p...

I remember it because they demoed it at TechHub.

The picture in that Kickstarter doesn't look particularly identical to the picture in the article.

In fact the one he linked is the problem this one is trying to solve!

I really want one as soon I could order it. Looks like the perfect device for a quick rest. Even with decent work schedules, having a quick rest after lunch would be great.

In the meantime I am practising micro-naps while sitting upright and still somewhat moving my mouse...

Odd contrast in culture; as someone who spent all my life in a society where "sleeping on the job" is considered absolutely unacceptable, this feels to me like it's solving the symptom but not the cause.

I have issues a few times a year with allergies and colds and while my adjustable bed is nice, sometimes it's much easier to be in a sitting position, leaning forward to sleep than it is to be on my back or side where mucus is going to sit in my throat and continuously irritate whatever section is causing me to cough. I have a neck pillow for this purpose that I just sort of use in the same manner.

If you have to choose, going to get caffeine or a nap, choose the nap.

Best is to caffeinate then nap.

https://lifehacker.com/naps-vs-coffee-which-is-better-when-y....

As a salaryman you are supposed to not leave office before your boss AND pretend to be working, pillow defeats the objective.

But do the Japanese (and I'm rather grossly referring to a homogeneous proxy here) see it that way? Isn't it considered good to be tired at work, to the point where it's considered virtuous to be tired in the afternoon (because you've been working so hard)? I'm not saying this is a good thing, but just questioning whether - in a Japanese company - having a nap at your desk is considered 'bad'.

Sleeping is not seen as lazy in Japan. You are correct that sleeping is viewed as the consequence of working hard. Public sleeping is common in Japan.

I live in Japan. The part about not leaving the office before your boss depends on the company and it is not so true anymore, most of my Japanese colleagues punch out the second the bell rings. The part about pretending to work is very much true though.

Could it be used on aeroplane tray table?

That was my first thought too it seems too wide from the measurements given but the attachment mechanics might be adjustable.

A number of posts have mentioned that this could be a symptom of overwork, and I certainly don't dispute that possibility. On the other hand, I have a pleasant job with flexible hours, yet I still enjoy a brief nap in the afternoon -- even on weekends and vacation.

Inflatable ones have been around for a long time. They have a hole for your face and hollow cavity to breath inside. I bought one on AliExpress few years ago for about 10 bucks. Still haven't tried it yet, but they are supposed to be for sleeping on trains, etc.

"Shut up and take my money!"

Please, pretty-please, consider exporting your product to Europe..

I saw a travel version of this recently, for use on airplanes, trains etc.

Seems like a good idea (apart from folk reclining their seats mid-snooze), but they also seemed way too bulky to be useful for travelling. What I need is a truly portable version!

This is the first thing I thought of too. Those travel pillows don't work for me at all because I never feel like I'm "reclining". Out of a sense of empathy (as a person tall enough to feel incredibly cramped in airplane seats), I only put my seat back if the flight is longer than 5 hours (i.e. international travel). The only way I'm able to sleep is by resting my arms/head on the tray table. A travel version of this would be a game changer. The only drawback is if you really pass out and start drooling :)

Yeah there’s an inflatable version but it doesn’t work well if the person in front of you reclines. If it was four inches taller you’d have the bottom part on your lap rather than the tray and it’d be pretty great

https://www.amazon.com/Inflatable-Airplane-inflatable-Sleepi...

I've asthma, and literally can't even blow up a balloon without feeling like I'm about to pass out! This could work for a lot of people tho.

Nice thinking but extremely bad for the spinal cord. Repeated usage of this will definitely cause a herniated disc or other orthopedic problems.

I'll debug a problematic SQL query with you, if you teach me how you came to your conclusion.

The ergonomics won’t work for me. I’m sure to sit comfortably I’ll have my chin where the top of this pillow is.

Looks similar to those travel pillows except this is more rigid and not inflatable.

Good idea, not sure how comfortable

Sell this in Baltimore and profit.

I was able to get a tour of <redacted>'s factory. And it was super cool. My mother in law was with me and she was very surprised. "They have a cafeteria with cheap, great food, showers, rooms with beds for naps. This is awesome!" she said. I replied with, "Because they never want you to leave, they want you to live at the factory and work 24/7." ... She then went, "Well, that is a lot less exciting then."

A 12-12:30 lunchtime nap? Perfect. An alternative to going home at night and just sleeping at the office (which I suspect is more in line with how things work in Japan)... no thanks.

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