When I was a teenager, I worked in a grocery store. Every 2 hours, a senior employee would get on the PA and lead our whole store’s team in a stretch. It really did go a long way towards refreshing our minds and our bodies. Sitting in front of a computer all day can be really bad for your posture and for your eyesight, which is why regular breaks are so important. Need help with remembering to take those breaks? Nap can help.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Nap is an app that enforces “break time” for its users. Every so often, Nap will make your entire screen go blurry, a sign that you need to go take a break.

Pros

• Customize the duration between “naps”
• Shows time before the next nap commences, allowing you to plan accordingly if you need to finish something important.
• Clever, effective way to encourage time to rest your eyes and stretch your limbs

Cons

• May not be supported by your boss, or appreciated by users who share the same machine with you.
• Nap can disable use to some programs, which may frustrate people who share your computer

Discussion

Developer Sun Wei stated that he developed this app for ergonomic reasons: “When I work in front of my Mac, I always care about what I am doing and ignore that the human body isn’t built to sit in one position for endless hours.That’s really bad, because now I always get a pain on my neck or back after hours of work.”

I think we’ve all been there. As someone who writes all day, every day, it’s hard to take frequent breaks from my Mac. Too many breaks, and I lose the groove in whatever article or review I’m composing. And for those of us who work at an office with an overbearing boss, it is often hard to find the time to catch the break that your tired eyes and body so desperately need after a few hours at the computer.

What Nap does is force you into taking a break: at certain intervals, the entire screen will blur as if it were placed behind a pane of frosted glass. The app will then slowly come back into focus: since you can’t really use your applications if you can’t see them properly, this is your chance to take a short break and rest your eyes, your mind, and your body.

Nap is great for fans of ergonomic, body-conscious working. In addition, I could also see it becoming useful for people who are on diets where they are eating small meals every 2-3 hours: when the Nap comes on, you can go fix yourself a snack!

Conclusion and download link

I always know I’ve been working too long when my eyes get bleary. Having an app that makes my whole computer screen go blurry to force me into taking a break is just plain smart. If you have a tendency to get lost in your work (or in that fun new game that’s eating up all your time,) Nap will help you to do what’s best for your body.

Price: Unknown

Note: At the time of this writing, Nap is temporarily free

Version reviewed: 1.1

Requires OS X 10.7 or later, 64-bit processor

Download size: 1.0 MB

Nap on Apple App Store