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Take a power nap at the Nescafé Sleep Café

Take a power nap at the Nescafé Sleep Café

Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Sleep usually is not associated with coffee. However, Nestlé Japan has turned this combination into a successful business concept. The “Nescafé Suimin Café” in Tokyo located in Oimachi in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district offers short-term napping and sleeping with the options of enjoying a coffee before and after resting.

Take a power nap at the Nescafé Sleep Café

A drawing of the Nescafé Suimin Café

Culture of “inemuri”

The long-hours working culture and time-consuming commutes to factories and offices are causing a chronic sleep deficit for many people living in Japan. Directly connected with this significant health challenge is a culture of public naps. This phenomenon is called “inemuri,” which means “to be present and sleep”.

Nestlé Japan picked up the two issues by opening pop-up cafés in Harajuku in March 2017 and Ginza in August 2017 and March 2018. There, customers could relax, nap, or sleep before or after work or during breaks. Among the offers were comfortable reclining chairs, beds with mattresses and sleep-assisting devices.

Research and preparation

The Japanese public met these month-long cafes with much enthusiasm. Hence, after analyzing its experiences with these three temporary cafes and after careful research and preparation, Nestlé decided to finally open a permanent version of such “sleep cafés” under the brand name of its coffee “Nescafé”.

“The Nescafé Sleep Café will enhance the quality of your life and contribute to creating a healthy future by helping to solve the problem of sleeping in Japan,” Nestlé Japan said in its announcement of the launch. The cafe would be a place where business people, tourists, and people working and living in Oimachi could take an ideal nap during the day. Customers can choose from several courses.

Take a power nap at the Nescafé Sleep Café

A napping reclining chair in the Nescafé Suimin Café

Different nap & sleep courses

The “nap course” for 750 yen (plus tax) consists of the use of a leather reclining chair for 30 minutes and starts with a cup of Nescafé Gold Blend Deep Roast coffee with caffeine. Such a short nap would not affect night sleep time but help over sleepiness, Nestlé said.

The “sleep course” allows customers to use a bed with a high-quality mattress and pillow for durations between one hour and three hours for prices ranging between 1500 and 4950 Yen (plus tax). After waking up, these customers can have Nescafé with caffeine.

Nestlé points out that sleeping and coffee are a good match because caffeine does not immediately kick in after drinking coffee. It takes between 15 to 30 minutes from the time you drink it to the time until it indeed stimulates the nervous system and makes you feel more alert and awake. Thus, if you drink a cup of coffee and then take a short nap, one wakes up just in time to notice the natural effect in addition to the recharging of body and mind through the rest itself.

Take a power nap at the Nescafé Sleep Café

Image picture of sleep mask used at Nescafé Suimin Café

Support from sleep-tech

Nestlé also provides customers with devices for falling asleep quickly and experiencing a beneficial rest. The Nescafé Sleep Café uses a smart lighting system that creates a warm light conducive for a peaceful sleep. A high-resolution audio system plays natural sounds of forests and rivers in high resolution.

Research has proven that such sounds reach and calm the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the body and mind unconsciously. Also, on request, a smart sleep mask monitors customers’ brainwaves as they sleep and provide them with a report of the quality of their sleep for their reference when they wake up. Such feedback can help customers better understand their sleep habits.

Text: Martin Fritz for SCCIJ; Photos: Nestlé Japan

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