Utamaro Kitagawa, A Mother Dozing While Her Child Topples a Fish Bowl
A recent poll at the McGraw-Hill Companies posed this question to a few thousand employees: if there were more hours in the day, would you work, sleep, relax, socialize, or play? For the overwhelming majority, the answer was a no-brainer: sleep.
This is serious news: the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences reports that sleep-related fatigue costs U.S. businesses $150 billion annually in absenteeism, accidents, and lost productivity. Charles Czeisler, M.D., a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, has found that pulling an all-nighter or sleeping as little as four to five hours daily for a week produces the level of cognitive impairment experienced by a person who is legally drunk. Yet we glorify people who sacrifice sleep.
The U.S. is not the only sleep-deprived nation. As globalization takes its toll, cities in Spain are seeing the disappearance of the siesta due to long commutes that make a midday trip home impractical.
The problem even has Japan taking snoozing seriously. High school teachers in some areas are dimming the lights to give students a power nap. And in Bangkok, Thailand, last November, civil servants were encouraged to take naps at lunchtime in a room where cell phones are banned.
Sara Mednick, Ph.D., author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life, says that napping is also catching on in New York City, where MetroNaps, with its space-age-style sleep pods, offers respite at its location in the Empire State Building, and Yelo, a sleep salon on West 57th Street, provides hexagonal sleeping pods.
Meanwhile, the Medical Journal of Australia sang the praises of the 10-minute power nap, and the Australian organization SIESTA (Society for the Introduction of Extra Sleeping Time in the Afternoon) quotes specialists from the Adelaide Institute of Sleep Health on the mental and physical benefits of the nap. They join Harvard and Columbia studies suggesting that napping helps the brain process information and reduces accidents at work and on the road. Just tell that to the boss when you doze off! Be sure to set your Zen Alarm Clock to waken you gradually and gently so you can get back to work refreshed and altert.
Chime Alarm Clock with Soothing Sounds
Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure. Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong. Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later. The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper.
adapted from Spirituality and Health Magazine, May 2007 by Swaha Devi
Zen Chime Clock with Japanese Maple Leaves in Honey Finish
Now & Zen’s Soothing Alarm Clock Store
1638 Pearl Street
Boulder, CO 80302
Posted in Bamboo Chime Clocks, Chime Alarm Clocks, Japanese Inspired Zen Clocks, Natural Awakening, Now & Zen Alarm Clocks, Progressive Awakening, Sleep Habits
