I Paid $25 for a 45-Minute Nap at NYC’s New Sleep Store—And Yes, It Was Dreamy

Here’s the thing: I can’t nap. I have never been able to successfully take a quick and blissful snooze in the middle of the day. In preschool, my schoolmates would slumber peacefully around me during nap time while I would lie wide-eyed and fidgety on my plastic mat. In high school and college, I was all about sleeping until noon on the weekends—not breaking away from my friends to rest before dinner. Now that I’m a working professional, and sleeping through the morning just isn’t an option anymore, I’m too anxious to shut myself down for 10, 15, even 30 minutes or more when it’s still light outside. At 31-years-old, I am a nap time neophyte, open to the idea and the benefits but struggling with turning the world and my brain off to catch some much-needed z’s.

So when I heard the millennial-favorite mattress company Casper had just opened a napping center in the middle of downtown Manhattan called The Dreamery, I was intrigued. Further peaking my interest was the fact that, on top of a 45-minute sleep session, they offered Sleepy Jones pj’s (not to keep), Sunday Riley beauty products (those you can take home), eye masks, earplugs, and a toothbrush and paste (you can have those, too)—and all for $25. In the current wellness world of $11 juices made of kale and chlorophyll and a price tag of $85 to freeze your entire body for three minutes, that’s a steal.

But would it actually be worth it to leave work in the middle of the day? Why not just go to one of those places in Chinatown for a $20 massage and nap? Or, why not just take yourself to your own home and sleep in your own bed, on your own mattress?

Being the curious, nap-deprived person that I am, I walked into the cool, well-appointed lounge area, which is reachable through a short tunneled passageway painted like a navy night sky and dotted with tiny lights. I was greeted by a very friendly but not overzealous staff, one of whom immediately handed me my pj’s and beauty kit and pointed me in the direction of the changing area. It was, in a word, chill. And a little cheeky, too: Next to the free snacks and the fridge that stocks cold brew, water, and La Croix for you to take with you after you nap, there was a shelf lined with books like The Truth About Corporate Accounting and A History of Golf and a sign that read: “these will put you right to sleep.”

Pastel-hued decor met me in the changing area, as did a selection of sleep masks, ear plugs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, and if I’d like, an extra pillow or two. There was a pair of soft, striped, Casper-branded socks as well. I swiftly slipped on my constellation-printed pajamas—so as to not waste any of my 45-minutes—and headed straight for the sleep room. A woman greeted me as I passed through the door to enter a high-ceilinged space populated with around seven or eight circular nap compartments. They were much roomier than any I’d seen before, especially the claustrophobic nap pods I’d once tried out at my old start-up media job. These were made with light wood, the beds were double sized but still spacious, with a light fixture in the corner, a built-in shelf to place your belongings on and plug your phone in, and fabric shades that closed you in for your rest. The bed was turned down like in a five-star hotel room. The Dreamery has a cleaning staff that whisks in after each person leaves and changes all of the sheets and remakes all of the beds. An instruction card explained the rules, “no rules, except if you’re going to sing opera or practice a monologue, we’d prefer you did it in your head,” as well as the fact that, for the wake-up, a soft light would gradually get brighter in the room once the time was up. Also, a few specially designed Headspace meditation programs were available for my use on The Dreamery’s website.

The second my head hit the pillow, I felt completely relaxed. The Casper mattress and all of its fluffy fittings did feel like lying on some ergonomically correct cloud. It was comfortable and warm, and I realized that a nap might not actually be a thing of my dreams. I turned off the light and turned on one of the Headspace programs, a breathing exercise followed by a visual meditation into the deep blue sea. The breathing exercise did wonders for making me dozy. Then I was in a submarine. We were diving deeper into the ocean. There was a group of dolphins approaching, one came to the window. When we reached the glittering coral reef, I remembered how much I hated the ocean or really, how much the idea of scuba diving scared the crap out of me. The voice kept going, my brain started spinning, so I took my headphones out and just stuck with the breathing. I fell fully asleep for probably 20 to 25 minutes. More importantly, however, I wasn’t looking at my phone, and I didn’t, for the most part, think about deadlines or my boss or what I was going to write for this story. It wasn’t a deep or a REM sleep, but for 45 minutes, I slept a little and decompressed a lot.

Waking up to the gradual light felt natural enough. I popped up and out of the bed I didn’t really want to leave and made my way back through the changing area and to the front. I felt refreshed and on some kind of high. I returned my pj’s, grabbed a boxed water from the fridge, and headed back out into real life. Returning to the office, a colleague asked if I wanted to grab a coffee. I didn’t need one. The nap had given me just the right jolt of energy I am always looking for. I was loose but motivated, serene but ready to get shit done. I’ve tried meditating in the morning and the afternoon nap provided a similar yet seemingly longer-lasting outcome for me. If only I didn’t have to travel to a different neighborhood to take my time-out, though. This was the only thing that gave me pause about The Dreamery. That said, a spokesperson told me that Casper was working to bring this concept into more offices, tech world and not, and to more of their storefronts and even to airports, in the near future.

It’s true that adult nap time is becoming more and more mainstream, at least in theory. There are still very few workplaces that offer employees the opportunity to sneak away and sleep for a few minutes in the middle of the day, but not as many are adamantly opposed to it as before the wellness boom in our culture. During the last couple of years, Arianna Huffington has lead the charge when it comes to progressing the notion that sleep helps productivity and therefore, the overall success of a company as a whole. She’s right, too. As Sleep.org points out, “29 percent of workers report falling asleep or becoming very sleepy at work, and a lack of sleep costs the United States $63 billion each year in lost productivity. But a short 20-minute nap can boost alertness and improve performance.”

I did feel slightly more productive at work after my nap at The Dreamery, but I must admit, it was fleeting. In order to make real change in your body, it has to become a regular routine, like working out or meditating first thing in the morning. That said, I certainly slept well that night and felt even better the next day. Realistically, I don’t know if I can make weekly or even daily trips to Casper and The Dreamery, but I do believe in the power of naps now more than ever, and that, to me, is worth way more than $25 and a trip outside the confines of my cubicle.