Inemuri a Japanese word to add to your vocabulary

Date: 2007 November 29 17:48

Posted by Joe

BBC News are running a story about sleep deprivation and different strategies for coping with it. The article covers the Japanese concept of inemuri, which translates as "to be asleep while present", the idea is you can fall asleep in without getting into trouble, such as at meetings. Apparently it's viewed as a positive thing, and suggests to those around you that the tiredness is from exhaustion from working too hard and sacrificing sleep at night. Naturally some people fake this to give the impression that they're working really hard.