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I have just returned from a week's holiday in Caleta de Velez, located east of Malaga in Spain . Looking back on the holiday, my lasting memories are of beautiful scenery, delicious food, and baking sunshine, all set against the unfortunate backdrop of tiresome tooth-ache. This was not my first visit to Spain , but I never fail to be impressed by the simple things which make life so much easier there. It is well documented that the Spanish adopt a laidback approach to life which contrasts starkly to the stress of attempting to exist in the UK , and I believe that we need to adapt to their way of thinking in order to make our lives more enjoyable.

The most significant aspect of Spanish culture that I think we should adopt is the siesta. A siesta is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. This is a time when many people begin to feel sleepy due to slight drop in body temperature and a loss of alertness which occurs naturally around midday. The word siesta is actually Spanish, and originates from the Latin word sexta , meaning the sixth hour, in this case counting from dawn (therefore approximately noon) hence a midday rest. In modern Spain the siesta is taken later in the day, usually mid to late afternoon but varying from one region to another.

It is fair to say that the Spanish way of life (and indeed that of similar countries such as Portugal and most of South America) is facilitated by the good weather it enjoys, although I am quite sure it would be possible for someone to take a siesta on a rainy August afternoon in Manchester should the opportunity arise. In a recent study in Germany , employees of a particular company were encouraged to take a quick snooze after lunch. The results were very positive; employees said they felt much better after a sleep, and productivity actually increased. It is this kind of forward-thinking that we need to encourage in the UK . In the average 8 hour working day it is estimated that each person will do between 5 and 6.5 hours of meaningful work, therefore allowing staff a 30 minute snooze break after lunch can only benefit output levels.

Winston Churchill was a famous advocate of daytime sleeping; his exact words on the subject were "Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations." Many other key figures throughout history have also championed the case for an afternoon nap, including John F Kennedy, Thomas Edison, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

During my holiday in Spain I visited the Nerja caves which were a fantastic spectacle. The place was a health and safety nightmare, but that was part of the charm for me, just hoping that some disobedient child might slip under the guide walk and plummet to a certain death. At about 2pm , a party of French people arrived and went to buy tickets for the exhibition, just in time to see the guy in the ticket office casually close his window so he could go to sleep. They were quite shocked that they would be expected to wait 2 hours before he re-opened, however he didn't even raise an eyelid. The truth is most British people salivate hysterically at the very thought of irritating the French, however the above situation is unlikely to happen in the UK as we are too customer focused.

There is an economic theory that the closer a country is to the Equator, the less productive its labour force is due to the amount of time spent resting from the heat. Whilst I accept the validity of this argument, it is also worth pointing out that the Spanish way of life is much more family-orientated, and that the people appear much less stressed than those of us from the economic super-powers. There are certain exceptions to this rule of productivity, the most notable of which is Silicon Valley ( California ), however the work there is carried out in huge air-conditioned units, programmers work an average of 85 hours per week, and nobody ever goes outside because the place is covered in a blanket of smog.

Stress levels are at an all time high in Britain today, and I believe we need to take steps to reverse this trend, starting with introducing an optional siesta into the working day. It is difficult to imagine a typical Spaniard slumped on the couch of an evening, nurturing a packet of Prozac and sobbing along to the Eastenders theme tune. They are far more likely to be found chomping on a chorizo while shouting encouragement at the live bull-fight taking place in the street outside. Life should be enjoyable, and it seems to me that the Spanish know how to relax and enjoy it, whereas we in the UK are too busy stressing. It's time we woke up to the problem.

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