In New York, a hotel for powernappers opens at $14 a snooze

[emad]

Independent on Sunday
By David Usborne in New York
26 September 2004


It was one of those mornings when I knew from the moment the alarm sounded that I was short of sleep. An hour later in my Midtown office I am still dozy but I know that my ergonomic office chair is not quite ergonomic enough to catch any discreet shut-eye.

Maybe it's time to sample MetroNaps, a new spot not too far away inside the Empire State Building that I have resisted visiting for some time. I mean, who ever heard of paying for a powernap? But then I reason that we pay for water nowadays so why not for something even more natural, the need to recharge?

In a converted office on the 24th floor of the skyscraper, MetroNaps feels at first like one of those airport lounges. After registering at a front desk, I am ushered into a darkened room. Ranged along its walls are seven sleeping pods. The airline theme continues: the pods are like those not-quite-flat seats you get at the front of the plane nowadays. The white noise buzzing from loudspeakers sounds like air rushing by at 34,000ft.

But the seats are more Barbarella than British Airways, with white, fibreglass hoods. As I install myself, my legs extended out in front of me, I briefly think I have come in for an MRI scan. "Enjoy your nap," says the hostess as she settles a blanket over my legs and shows me my headset.
More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=565783

[Newsjock]

1. More toys for ...

... people whose incremental tax rates apparently are not high enough. ;)

[Minstrel Boy]

2. $14 for 20 minutes?

They should be charged with soliciting.

[Skidmore]

3. keeerist...we need a global

worker revolt--shut down the corporations for a while and see just how fast those CEO salaries can be paid with no production happening. This is a symptom of all that is wrong with capitalism.

[LiberalFighter]

4. I bet they still get paid while snoozing