posted December 15, 2007 05:42 PM              

Charles Bremner in Paris

# Paid siesta to help France sleep better
# Fatigue blamed for 20% of accidents

They already enjoy Europe’s shortest working week. Now French workers are to be encouraged to have a nap after lunch.

The state-backed siesta is part of a €7 million (£4.7 million) campaign begun yesterday by the Health Ministry to encourage the French to sleep more and better. A third of the population does not sleep enough, experts say.

Tiredness is blamed for 20 per cent of road and domestic accidents, and for low efficiency at work and school, obesity, depression and many other ills.

“Sleep must not be trivialised,” Xavier Bertrand, the Health Minister, said. The after-lunch nap is to be introduced by volunteer companies and studied for results. It could then be recommended for all employees, the minister said.

“Why not a siesta at work? The question must not be taboo,” Mr Bertrand said. “But let’s not get carried away. The siesta would be limited to 15 minutes. But if the study enables us to confirm the positive effects on concentration and quality of work, we must not hesitate to promote the concept.”

The benefits of the afternoon “power nap” have long been known to practitioners, who have included Josef Stalin, Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill.

Southern France used to indulge in the Mediterranean siesta but, despite the 35-hour maximum working week, office workers have long abandoned the traditional two-hour, wine-accompanied lunch. Many city workers have even adopted non-French habits such as sandwiches at the desk.

Combined with stressful commuting, this has contributed to fatigue, the experts say. The Government says that 56 per cent of those complaining of poor sleeping habits report that their work suffers.

To educate tired workers, the Health Ministry has put a “sleep passport” online at sante.gouv.fr. The site carries a quick test to determine whether citizens are suffering from a lack of rest.

According to Mr Bertrand, who said that he slept four hours a night, it was generally not understood that a driver who had not slept for 17 hours suffered from the same poor reactions as a person with 0.5g of alcohol per litre in the blood, which is France’s legal limit. A full 24 hours without sleep was like driving at twice the limit, he said.

The French, including doctors, have to be weaned off the idea that the answer to manque de sommeil (lack of sleep) is a good pill, the minister said. France is one of the biggest consumers of such medication, with 68 million tubes of sleeping pills bought every year.

By raising awareness over sleep, the Government hopes that French workers, who are among the world’s most productive during their hours on the job, will become even more efficient.