National Geographic

The Japanese terminemuri, or “sleepingwhile present,” is adistinct form of nap-ping in which a persondozes in a place notmeant for sleep, suchas the subway—or evenat a dinner party orthe office. “Since you’reofficially not sleeping,”says Brigitte Steger,a Japan specialist atthe University of Cam-bridge in England,“to be socially accept-able you should behaveas is appropriate ina certain situation.For example in a meet-ing, you half pretendlistening or hide yoursleeping head behindpaperwork.” If you’renot already knownas a slacker, Stegeradds, a little inemurimay even enhanceyour business reputa-tion: It demonstratesthat you’re workingyourself to exhaustion.74 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC