Good Escapes
Urban nappers find lost sleep at Yelo wellness center
Nicolas Ronco is a sleep evangelist. He naps religiously, usually 20 minutes a day, and created a temple to sleep in midtown Manhattan so that other New Yorkers could do the same. Yelo (named for the sun and not the stars?) opened to much hoopla in February 2007, with a New York Times story proclaiming, “the city that never sleeps needs a nap.”
That’s pretty much the motto of Ronco, who grew up napping during the hot midday in Tunisia. When he did an MBA in NYC and started working long hours at Time Warner, he took the business-road less traveled: a power nap instead of a power lunch. “I’d sneak home and nap for 25 minutes. I’d be alert during the 3:00 budget meetings when everyone else was nodding off,” says Ronco. Or running to Starbucks.
Yelo founder Nicolas Ronco
Ronco became interested in the idea that a nap is a human need that doesn’t go away with childhood—and has since developed an academic’s passion for the subject of slumber: “For 50,000 years we’ve been taking naps; human sleep is supposed to be poly-phasic (i.e. not just one eight hour block, but several blocks of time). It’s only been mono-phasic since the Industrial Revolution,” says Ronco.
So what do you pay for at a napping spa? All treatments, whether reflexology or just a nap, take place inside YeloCabs, a groovy pod-like room designed with input from an MD and a sleep expert to be the perfect setting for sleep. It features a zero-gravity chair that raises your legs above your heart to lower your blood pressure. “In terms of blood circulation, you’re sending a signal that your heart can relax, so it goes down by 7-15 bpm,” explains Ronco.
After getting comfortable in the chair, an attendant covers you in a cashmere blanket and leaves. The room is pitch black and misted with your choice of aromatherapy while a relaxing soundtrack (also your choice) plays in surround sound. Needless to say, I found it a big improvement on a nap at home. I fell asleep in probably 5 minutes, and so deeply that the simulated sunrise built into the room’s lighting design didn’t even rouse me. Ronco says I must have fallen into a Stage 3 sleep, rare for a first-timer and too deep a level of sleep for a nap. Still, after a few minutes of grogginess, I felt legitimately refreshed and finished the workday with unusual focus. I could see how this might be better than a double skim late-afternoon latte.
The naps start at $15 for 20-minutes and go up to $28 for 40-minutes. Not bad for a fresh start on the day.
Yelo, 315 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019, 212-245-8235, www.yelonyc.com
Do you ever find time during the workday for a short nap? Tell us, here!
Oh my. I cannot wait until I have a job in midtown and can trek over there during lunch time. I just saw a special on television about the body’s internal clock and how a siesta around 2 p.m. is imperative to beat the afternoon slump. More than once I have nodded away at my desk and have dreamed about nap time as part of a reasonable adult schedule. Although I wouldn’t say no to milk and cookies when I wake up.
I have a feeling Nicolas Ronco would say that a nap is very important for people looking for a job, too. And I bet he’d understand if you had to use your own sofa until you landed one.
A similar concept extends to spa treatments as well. The body’s natural circadian rhythms should be followed, therefore, stimulating treatments like scrubs and ice plunge baths are for mornings, and relaxing treatments like longer, slower massages and heat wraps for later in the day.
I have been looking for a place like this for the longest. I often find myself in Midtown between meetings, tired or just looking for a place to relax, wishing that there was a comfy spot nearby. It got to the point that I was thinking about opening up my own!