This week, the human resources field is abuzz with the news that napping at work can help prevent heart disease. The catalyst?  A study just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which is being covered in thousands of news outlets, including Reuters and the Washington Post, as we speak.  To reach their conclusion, researchers followed 23,681 healthy Greek adults for six years. Those who napped at least three times per week at the office, for at least 30 minutes, had a 37 percent lower chance of dying from heart attacks or heart disease than those who managed to stay awake through their entire workdays.

The relationship was even stronger among employed men as compared to unemployed men, with nappers apparently relieving some of the work-related stress that was bad for their hearts, researchers said.  The same conclusion could not be made for working women because of a limited number of subjects.

While I find these results as interesting as the next guy, I have to wonder how relevant they really are to our lives on the hyper-productive continent known as North America.  I believe that researchers, overseas and at home, could study napping at work until they were blue in the face, but that wouldn’t change the fact that a Puritanical work ethic is deeply ingrained in our society’s culture.  Does anyone really think that North American workplaces would ever allow napping on the job, no matter how beneficial it’s proven to be for employees?  Don’t get me wrong – the siesta is a long-standing and deeply respected tradition in many areas of the world for a reason.  I unfortunately just don’t see it ever becoming a reality for the overworked and overtired cube dwellers on this side of the pond.