Arianna: Office Nap Rooms Will Soon Be As Common As Conference Rooms

Naps are actually a performance enhancer, she argues.
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Huffington Post Media Group Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington predicts that nap rooms in offices are going to be "as common as conference rooms" in the next two years.

Huffington's mission: to eliminate the stigma long associated with sleeping at work. Napping on the job used to "mean [that employees were] not as dedicated, not as hard-working," she told NBC's "Today" on Monday.

But in the HuffPost newsroom, "having a nap in the middle of the afternoon is actually a performance-enhancing tool," she said.

Studies have shown that a nap in the morning can boost creative thinking, while afternoon naps can help people feel better physically.

Experts like Sara Mednick, a researcher at the University of California, recommend a short nap in the middle of the day because you won't feel groggy when waking up.

Other companies like Google, Zappos and Ben & Jerry's are getting on board with the napping trend. All now have built nap rooms in their offices.

Huffington is also trailblazing the concept of sleep as a necessary tool for success, through an initiative named The Sleep Revolution. "We need to dispel the myth that we can function perfectly on four or five hours," she told "Today."

Sleep is "the gateway through which a life of well-being must travel," Huffington recently wrote. It allows people to be more productive, lead healthier lives and connect more deeply to themselves, she added.

Once chronically fatigued herself, she turned her life around after collapsing from exhaustion in 2007.

More than 40 percent of Americans get less than the recommended minimum seven hours of sleep per night, a Gallup poll found.

Huffington will soon embark on a college tour, where she plans to visit 50 schools with leading sleep experts.

Her new book, The Sleep Revolution, hits shelves on Tuesday.

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