<story><title>Take Naps at Work</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/smarter-living/take-naps-at-work-apologize-to-no-one.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samsonradu</author><text>Curious if you were able to do the same? From what I&amp;#x27;ve seen asians have this ability to pretty much sleep &lt;i&gt;anywhere&lt;/i&gt;, planes, trains, buses anything. The crappy chairs and noisy engines don&amp;#x27;t seem to bother them.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think I could ever fall asleep in the lunch break, the morning coffee and the light outside doesn&amp;#x27;t let my brain go off.&lt;p&gt;EDIT&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t mean to offend anyone, just curious whether the ability to fall asleep in uncomfortable environments is something asian-specific.</text></item><item><author>beilabs</author><text>When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we&amp;#x27;d have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break.&lt;p&gt;Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system.  No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people.  Definitely something I approve of; I&amp;#x27;ve a small mattress in my office just for such occasions.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>toomanybeersies</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s an acquired skill, being able to sleep anywhere. Military people tend to acquire it by necessity, Asians seem to have cultural reasons for it.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not too hard to acquire it with some practice, every time you feel like it would be a good time to have a nap, close your eyes and try to have a nap. For a while, you won&amp;#x27;t actually get to sleep, you&amp;#x27;ll just be lying or sitting there with closed eyes, but after trying for a while, you&amp;#x27;ll actually start napping or sleeping.&lt;p&gt;These days, if I&amp;#x27;m a passenger in a vehicle for a &amp;gt; 30 minute trip, you&amp;#x27;re almost guaranteed to find me sleeping.</text></comment>
<story><title>Take Naps at Work</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/smarter-living/take-naps-at-work-apologize-to-no-one.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samsonradu</author><text>Curious if you were able to do the same? From what I&amp;#x27;ve seen asians have this ability to pretty much sleep &lt;i&gt;anywhere&lt;/i&gt;, planes, trains, buses anything. The crappy chairs and noisy engines don&amp;#x27;t seem to bother them.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think I could ever fall asleep in the lunch break, the morning coffee and the light outside doesn&amp;#x27;t let my brain go off.&lt;p&gt;EDIT&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t mean to offend anyone, just curious whether the ability to fall asleep in uncomfortable environments is something asian-specific.</text></item><item><author>beilabs</author><text>When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we&amp;#x27;d have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break.&lt;p&gt;Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system.  No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people.  Definitely something I approve of; I&amp;#x27;ve a small mattress in my office just for such occasions.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yomly</author><text>One thing I&amp;#x27;ve noticed is that people in the UK are way more considerate about and sensitive to noise whereas the opposite is true to Asians.&lt;p&gt;Go to China and the level of ambient noise is much higher, whether that is people talking louder or having no qualms playing music from their phone speakers at any time of the day.&lt;p&gt;So at a guess, I think that cultural conditions probably lend themselves to people of Asian heritage learning to sleep under noisier conditions. Of course, these are all anecdata and generalisations so ymmv - fwiw, my personal observations are somewhat in line with yours.</text></comment>