Pictures of the week: Eric Leleu's Day Dreamers

Has Shanghai fallen victim to a killer virus? At first glance, these photographs of people taking naps across the city are slightly alarming. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

But the reality is less sensational: in China, as in many other Asian countries, sleeping in public is an accepted social norm. →
Photograph: Eric Leleu

From shop assistants to waitresses, street vendors to taxi drivers, workers in China often wake early and put in long hours. Napping is seen as a healthy way to keep mind and body balanced. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

The benefits of napping are well-documented: improved moods, better concentration, less fatigue. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

When Shanghai-based photographer Eric Leleu first arrived from his native France, he was struck by the contrast between these public siestas and China’s image in the west. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

'I found it fascinating that these naps went against the cliche of this economic powerhouse and its hard-working, obedient citizens,' Leleu says.'It showed another side of China.' The reverse, of course, is also true: they nap because they work so hard. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

Leleu, who has taken hundreds of photographs of nappers, shoots quickly and quietly on a small camera. Some sleepers wake up while he’s working. 'I smile and show them the picture,' he says. 'No one complains.' → Photograph: Eric Leleu

There is a vulnerability to these people – a particularly private activity undertaken in public – and a refreshing unselfconsciousness: they don’t care who sees them. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

We in the west (Spain excepted) have it wrong, Leleu says. When we hit a post-lunch slump, we mainline caffeine to stay awake. → Photograph: Eric Leleu

There’s a stigma attached to naps that suggests laziness or a lack of ambition; it should be the opposite.

ericleleu.com • This article was edited on 30 September 2013, to correct the mispelling of Eric Leleu's name in the headline and standfirst. Photograph: Eric Leleu