{"id":9703,"date":"2008-08-05T14:20:35","date_gmt":"2008-08-05T19:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/08\/05\/whos-cranky-another-reason-for-law-firm-nap-rooms\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:23","slug":"whos-cranky-another-reason-for-law-firm-nap-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/08\/05\/whos-cranky-another-reason-for-law-firm-nap-rooms\/","title":{"rendered":"who’s cranky? another reason for law firm nap rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"napHammock\" A <\/em><\/strong>year ago, we argued that law firms have an ethical obligation to provide nap rooms<\/a> for their aging members. A new survey done in the UK gives us a stellar “quality of life” or “professional civility” reason for more lawyer nap rooms. You see, a poor night’s sleep makes most people rather grumpy the next day at work. “Study highlights bad sleepers<\/a>” (The Press Association, Aug. 3, 2008). And<\/em>, a group of lawyers in their 50’s are apparently the most sleep deprived segment of British Society (via: Carolyn Elefant at Legal Blog Watch<\/em><\/a>, Aug. 4, 2008). The f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang believes that there’s nothing like a good nap to calm an old grump. (Note, however, that some people get even grumpier when a nap is interrupted.)<\/p>\n

up all night
\nthe Senior Partner forgets
\nhis manners<\/em><\/p>\n

.. by dagosan<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Two Ends of the Bar<\/strong>: A Bloomberg article yesterday gives more detail. “Lawyers in Their 50s Are U.K.’s Most Sleep Deprived<\/a>” (Bloomberg<\/em>, Aug. 4, 2008):<\/p>\n

“London lawyers aged 55 are the most sleep-deprived workers in the U.K. mainly due to stress, according to a study of 2,000 adults in a variety of jobs.<\/p>\n

“Lawyers said they average about four hours sleep a night and admit they can be bad tempered and emotional leading to underperformance at work, according to an Aug. 1 study by GfK AG’s U.K researchers.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why are lawyers sleeping so poorly? <\/p>\n

\n

“Fifty-seven percent of lawyers cited work stress as the reason they toss and turn, 45 percent blamed discomfort with their bed, 41 percent said family problems were the root cause, and 40 percent blamed noise. Twenty-seven percent cited health worries and 25 percent blamed money worries for sleeplessness.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ironically, the best sleepers also had bar-related jobs:<\/p>\n

“Among the other workers surveyed, 20-year-old single, female bar employees from central England were the U.K.’s best sleepers, averaging 10 hours a night.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clearly<\/a>, middle-aged lawyers need more nap rooms — or, as Ed might say over at Blawg Review<\/em><\/a>, perhaps they need to meet more twenty-something barmaids. [For more on the benefits of naps, see our post from May 2, 2008, “naptime: forwards and backwards<\/a>.”]<\/p>\n

\n

By the way<\/em>: The same research group offered another reason why so many Baby Boomers might be cranky these days (beyond wrinkles, arthritis, memory lapses, etc.): “Generation 50+ feels undervalued by the world of business and politics<\/a>” (GfK, June 20, 2008)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

empty cookie tin \u2013
\nthe hermit heads
\nback to bed<\/p>\n

… by dagosan<\/p>\n

insomnia-
\na screensaver glows
\nthrough a dark window<\/p>\n

… by jim kacian – World Haiku Assn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

p.s.<\/strong><\/em> I was wondering why the study got so many responses indicating that an uncomfortable bed was the source of sleeping problems — until<\/em> I saw who sponsored the survey: bed maker Silentnight Holdings Plc. For example, in addition to the 45% of lawyers citing discomfort in bed, the results showed that:<\/p>\n

\n

“Just under half of people in East Anglia (43%), 40% of those in the south-west of England and 40% of those in Scotland said that not being able to get comfortable affected their sleeping patterns.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

afterwords<\/strong><\/em> (Aug. 7, 2008): Scott Greenfield adds trial tactics<\/a> to the reasons for respecting the human need to nap in the afternoon, while confessing to engaging often in afternoon naps, despite not having yet entered his golden years.<\/p>\n

update<\/strong><\/em> (Aug. 9, 2008): See our post “can coffee cure cranky counselors?<\/a>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

on the face
\nthat last night called me names
\nmorning sunbeam<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

. . . . George Swede<\/strong><\/font><\/a> from <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span>Almost<\/em> Unseen<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/a><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

a noon nap
\non a good day\u2026
\nfirst rainbow<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

his quick nap
\nis just pretend\u2026
\nhermit crab<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

restless sleep–
\ntea cakes<\/a> in the hut
\nfor Ninth Month moon<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026. by Kobayashi Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/a><\/p>\n

insomnia
\na robin sings<\/a>
\nall night long<\/p>\n

\"napperPark\" … by Matt Morden – Morden Haiku<\/em><\/a> (April 24, 2007)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

sleepless . . .
\nthe baby\u2019s age
\nin days<\/p>\n

.. by John Stevenson – Some of the Silence<\/em> (Red Moon Press,1999)<\/p>\n

\n

sleepless night
\nsnow to rain
\nby the sound of it<\/p>\n

… by Tom Painting – The Heron\u2019s Nest<\/em> (March 2005)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

too tired
\nto untangle
\nchristmas lights<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. by Roberta Beary<\/p>\n

\n

sleepless night
\nshe won’t stop
\nleaving me alone<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

3 am nature call\u2013
\nthe nagging drip
\nof icicles<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

twin beds arrive
\nshe says
\nit’s ’cause I snore<\/p>\n

…… by dagosan<\/p>\n

scolding the cricket
\nin my sleep\u2026
\nthatched hut
\n\u2026\u2026\u2026. by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago, we argued that law firms have an ethical obligation to provide nap rooms for their aging members. A new survey done in the UK gives us a stellar “quality of life” or “professional civility” reason for more lawyer nap rooms. You see, a poor night’s sleep makes most people rather grumpy the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[555,3513,1414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-lawyer-news-or-ethics","category-qs-quickies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2wv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12215,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9703\/revisions\/12215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}