Nestlé Opens a "Sleep Café"! Struggling with Insomnia? Have a Cup of Coffee!

Have you been sleeping well lately? Sleep deprivation and insomnia have become problems that many modern people are troubled by. In order to get a better night's sleep, people have begun trying various sleep aids and sleep products... As this demand continues to grow, the sleep economy has gradually emerged in recent years.

From pillows and bedding to eye masks and earplugs, from medication assistance to electronic sleep aids, the boundaries of sleep products have rapidly expanded and continuously moved toward "high-end." Sleep-assisting foods emerge in endlessly, and spraying sleep spray, lighting aromatherapy candles, eating a melatonin gummy, and wearing a steam eye mask have become many people's daily "four-step routine" before bed.

Although fully equipped, many people still suffer from insufficient sleep every day... Thus, lunch breaks have also become a "sleep" time that many people cherish. However, the office environment for proper rest is limited, so sleep lounges that provide nap environments have begun to appear. Among them, Nestlé Coffee Company has also become one of them...

"Ah! Isn't coffee supposed to be refreshing? A coffee company opening a sleep lounge lacks persuasiveness, right!" Hey~ that's not right! Coffee can actually help you sleep! And it can help you sleep better!

The Nestlé Sleep Café Experience

This March, Nestlé Coffee Japan opened a "Nestlé Sleep Café" in a busy district of Tokyo, aiming to allow exhausted workers to enjoy food and take a short nap during their lunch breaks or spare time. Just like that? It's not that simple! Napping also requires a sense of ritual! And before sleeping, you must first drink a cup of sugar-free, low-caffeine black coffee!

This sleep café features multiple independent sleep rooms equipped with soft blankets, memory foam pillows of varying firmness, comfortable sofas, and beds where people can lie flat. Everyone can choose their preferred sleeping method according to their needs. The room lighting can also be adjusted—either complete darkness mode or soft light mode. For those who find it too quiet, nature sounds can be played to help with sleep.

These nature sounds were specially recorded by Nestlé over a year using high-spec audio equipment in Japan's Shirakami Mountains in Aomori Prefecture, Tenkawa Village in Nara Prefecture, and Naguri Valley in Saitama Prefecture, capturing the sounds of nature throughout the four seasons. The audio sources used for playback are more than 500 times more detailed than existing online sources, making every listener feel more immersed, as if sleeping in nature itself.

Sleep Packages and the Coffee Nap Concept

The sleep café offers two types of sleep packages: "Nap" and "Deep Sleep." The 30-minute "Nap" package includes a cup of caffeinated sugar-free black coffee after waking up, priced at 825 yen (approximately 41 RMB). The 60-minute "Deep Sleep" package includes a cup of sugar-free, low-caffeine black coffee before sleep to help with falling asleep, followed by another cup of caffeinated sugar-free black coffee after waking up to refresh, priced at 1,650 yen (approximately 82 RMB). One hour not enough? Sleep time can be extended at 825 yen (approximately 41 RMB) per 30 minutes.

Worried about sleeping too comfortably and oversleeping? Don't be! There are dedicated staff who will gently wake you up when your time is up~

The experience duration and process designed by "Nestlé Sleep Café" actually follow the popular "Coffee Nap" concept in recent years. The principle is that during brain activity, a chemical substance called "adenosine" is naturally secreted, causing nerve cells to become sluggish and thus making people feel drowsy. Caffeine can block the functioning of adenosine, therefore creating a refreshing effect. However, caffeine takes about 30 minutes to take effect, so drinking a cup of coffee before sleeping and taking a short nap can clear excess adenosine during the sleep process, making you feel more refreshed upon waking.

Nutrition and Sleep Quality

The basic principles of living well include not only sleeping well but also eating well. Therefore, under the guidance of Professor Lin Guangxu from Hiroshima University, who researches sleep health, the café has introduced meals rich in tryptophan such as "Spicy Shrimp Rice," "Steak Vegetable Salad," and "Grapefruit Caramel Crème Brûlée" to help calm the mind and improve sleep quality.

Since its opening, "Nestlé Sleep Café" has attracted many visitors daily, showing that life is truly challenging for everyone. According to feedback from netizens who have experienced it, this approach truly allows for a good short rest, probably because the environment helps everyone relax.

Work and life have made us resistant to our office and home environments, which is why we have long-term poor rest and insufficient sleep. But changing the environment really makes a big difference, especially when paired with nature sounds, which is truly relaxing and calms emotions significantly.

If such sleep cafés were to open in China, would you be willing to try them?

A Side Note

Many readers might think that consumers of these experiences are being "picky," but for people with insomnia, getting a good hour of sleep is incredibly precious!

With continuous social development, people not only suffer from insufficient sleep but also have irregular sleep schedules. Although we have the concept of "catching up on sleep"—the habit of staying up late on workdays and sleeping for long periods on weekends or holidays—it's difficult to repay the "sleep debt" accumulated from staying up late. This may even cause more severe physical dysfunction than continuous sleep deprivation, and the more you sleep, the more tired you feel, experiencing dizziness, headaches, and muscle soreness upon waking.

In addition to adults' insufficient sleep, the situation of insufficient sleep among adolescents is also very serious. According to the "2019 China Children and Adolescents Sleep Index White Paper" released by the Chinese Sleep Research Association on this year's World Sleep Day, 62.9% of children and adolescents sleep less than 8 hours, with this proportion reaching 81.2% among middle and high school students, also due to pressure and anxiety.

These might seem like normal occurrences to many, but long-term sleep disorders increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In China, people with various sleep disorders account for about 38% of the population, with incidence rates higher than the world average of 27%.

Domestic research reports indicate that both insufficient and excessive sleep can damage memory. Sleeping less than 6 hours increases the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke by 11%, and proteins related to Alzheimer's disease will grow geometrically. People who sleep more than 9 hours daily also show significant increases in Alzheimer's-related proteins, similarly prone to memory decline.

Although many sleep aids and methods are continuously being developed and promoted, the person who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. If you truly cannot self-regulate your state to achieve autonomous sleep for a long time, we need to pay more attention to mental health issues and seek relevant professional treatment as early as possible.

Coffee, while it can both refresh and aid sleep, is not a miracle cure and should not be overly relied upon or consumed excessively.

Image source: Internet

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