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Spa offers lunchtime power naps in futuristic pods

Ann Wagner spent $14 on a recent lunch hour. Taking a nap.
Closing her eyes in an egg-shaped, computerized sleeping pod inside the atrium-level storefront at one of downtown Atlanta’s busiest buildings, Wagner’s 20-minute snooze cost more than a ticket to the movies.

Ann Wagner settles into the Alpha pod for her 20-minute nap at Rejuvenate in downtown Atlanta. Later, she awakes to a two-minute warning of chimes and returns to work.
 
Which for some, may seem absurd, to pay to do something that most of us do for six to eight hours on a daily basis anyway — for free.
Sort of like going inside a bar to pay for oxygen, or paying someone to bottle readily available water. Oh, wait.
Yes, there is a napping spa here in Atlanta, one of just a handful across the nation.

Rejuvenate, which opened in November 2007 inside the SunTrust Plaza, offers five snooze suites, each separated by chocolate colored curtains. A 30-minute nap costs $19. Snooze for an hour and pay $35.

“I didn’t sleep well last night,” said Wagner, who woke up twice the previous night to breastfeed her baby. Wagner first tried the new age sleeping chamber last month after her boss noticed her heavy eyes.

“I was so exhausted and my boss looked at me and said, ‘Do you need to go home?’ ” said Wagner, assistant property manager of SunTrust Plaza.
From the inside, the pods feel like tanning beds. Nappers adjust the temperature, add lavender or citrus aromatherapy and a cool breeze for their necks. Some futuristic looking pods vibrate and calculate the number of calories burned while you try to shut off the world and drift off to La La Land.

After 18 minutes, a sound of chimes gives Wagner a two-minute warning.

“Oh, that was so nice,” she says, slipping back into her black heels. And then she crossed the street and returned to work. “I really needed that.”

Luxury treatment
Very few spas in the country offer napping exclusively, and Rejuvenate is likely Atlanta’s first. The sleek Yelo spa opened in Manhattan in 2007 promising brief power naps and cashmere blankets.

But many spas across the country, especially getaway spas, are introducing sleep treatments, including everything from feather beds and lavander mists to overnight sleep observation.

The Sundara Inn and Spa in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., offers a “Sundara Sleep Experience,” featuring bio-therapeutic massage to treat insomnia, as well as feather beds and special music and lighting to help induce sleep.

And the Lodge at Woodlock in Hawley, Pa., recently launched a “Healthy Sleep Program,” that mixes herbs and meditation.

Earlier this year, the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation at Lake
Oconee started offering a touch therapy treatment called, “Drift Asleep,” which starts with an aromatherapy milk bath and ends with a nap. The 110-minute treatment cost $300.

Some companies including Google and Proctor & Gamble offer ladle-shaped sleeping pods for its employees, according to the company MetroNaps, which also has sleeping nooks at Vancouver’s airport.

Atlanta’s Rejuvenate caters to business executives and about 60 percent of the clientele are men, most of whom are walk-ins. While the spa also offers yoga classes and facials, it’s mostly lulling harried workers to sleep.

They also have Friday night “Nappy Happy Hours” from 5-7 p.m. Busiest times are during lunch or immediately following lunch. And they see the traffic pick up on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Rejuvenate owner Susan Vanyo said she recognizes a challenge in days where a gloomy economy is causing nightmares — even during a brief nap.
She recently reduced the price for naps and is offering bulk pricing for employers.

‘It’s a splurge’

Stewart Haddock, a 39-year-old Web programmer, has a perfectly good bed at home in Grant Park. But Haddock, who sometimes needs to “turn his brain off” for 30 minutes, said going home on his lunch hour isn’t an option.

“I bike to work, and if I biked home, I’d get all sweaty, and it wouldn’t be as convenient,” said Haddock, who works just a few flights up from the atrium-level spa.

Still, leaving work for a cat nap raises the eyebrows of co-workers.
“I think they’re intrigued by the idea, but my co-workers would rather eat at their desk during their lunch hour,” said Haddock. “I think for a lot of people, the idea of napping during the day is still a little odd.”
Especially, when you have to pay for it.
But Haddock, whose pod of choice is the recliner known as the “alpha pod,” resting is a treat.

“It’s a splurge. But if I can justify my three-and-half-dollar coffee, I can justify splurging for a nap every once in a while,” he said.

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