Blink twice if you typically sleep less than seven hours each night. But it turns out that Casper -- the company that admittedly started out as one that aimed to sell mattresses to millennials -- wants to cure this epidemic. To find out, I decided to go back to The Dreamery the next day and fully immerse myself in the nap boutique experience. Each nap pod is equipped with a Twin-XL-sized Casper mattress, with fresh sheets that are changed before every nap (part of what makes the experience "indulgent," Morgan says). Why am I in a pod, in a room with a handful of strangers, also napping in pods?" Would I pay $25 for another midday, work week nap? And as it turns out, that's Casper's end game -- to curb that propensity to feel bad about taking breaks, especially when it manifests through a de-prioritization of sleep. "The problem we’re trying to solve is, 'How do we get more people engage with sleep?’ That’s what the Dreamery is about.” “What might the world look like if people could take a nap during the day?” - Eleanor Morgan, Chief Experience Officer, Casper So if there's any marketing lesson to be gleaned from The Dreamery experience -- it's to lean into the taboo. That's why the company is looking to partner with a number of brick-and-mortar location categories, like workplaces and airports, to vertically integrate nap pods as on-site experiences. Which is another lesson to marketers: In the process of figuring out what makes your business, brand, or product unique -- and perhaps even taboo -- lean into it, and create a remarkable experience around it.
Blink twice if you typically sleep less than seven hours each night.
Go ahead. I’m not watching, or judging. But if you’re part of the one-third of U.S. adults who get less than the recommended amount of sleep each night — please, blink twice.
Did you do it? So did I.
I, too, am part of what Eleanor Morgan, chief experience officer at Casper — the ecommerce company known for its sleep products, including its famed memory foam mattress — calls the most “under-slept” developed nation (the U.S.) in the world.
This national epidemic of “short sleep duration” — the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) term for habitually getting less than seven hours of sleep each night — well, it’s resulted in what Morgan has observed as “a lack of joy and happiness related to sleep.”
A2. CDC data show that nearly 40% of health diagnosing and treating practitioners report a short #sleep duration of less than 7 hours on average https://t.co/hNXXDAezWn #ATSchat #MakeTime2Sleep
— Academy of Sleep Med (@AASMorg) April 25, 2018
The CDC calls it “frequent mental distress” — one of the many side effects of regularly getting an insufficient amount of sleep.
But it turns out that Casper — the company that admittedly started out as one that aimed to sell mattresses to millennials — wants to cure this epidemic. To democratize sleep. To make it okay — as it is in countries like Spain, Morgan uses as an example — to take a nap during the day.
How Casper convinced legions of millennials to love something as pedestrian as a mattress company: https://t.co/YJPn6lXCGA
— Backchannel (@backchnnl) November 3, 2017
Its answer to the nationwide sleep shortage is The Dreamery: a brick-and-mortar nap boutique, of sorts, located in New York’s SoHo neighborhood.
I decided to give it a try.
Naps for Hire
I was able to tour The Dreamery this week as part of Code Commerce — a conference that centers around ecommerce and retail — where I had a quick look at Casper’s nap shop, and learned more about its mission and operations.
At The Dreamery, a 45-minute nap costs $25. It includes the option of changing into appropriately-themed navy blue pajamas with astrological patterns, grooming products to help your skin recover while you sleep, and access to the location’s lounge, where visitors can enjoy a range of snacks, beverages, and 30 minutes of free WiFi.
Your initial reaction might be, “There are people who pay for naps?” Don’t worry — you’re not alone, and I had a similar impression at first. Was $25 an inflated price tag for less than an hour of snoozing? Or was it a bargain?
To find out, I decided to go back to The Dreamery the next day and fully immerse myself in the nap boutique experience.
The Experience
That particular day, quieting my mind for even 45 minutes in an environment built specifically for sleep seemed hopeless. Just before arriving, I had gulped down a large coffee. I was away from home and preoccupied with what turned out to be an untrustworthy dog-sitter. And I didn’t have a ton of time to spare — after my $25 nap, I had meetings to get to.
But as I reentered the electric-star-studded entrance — late for my snooze appointment, of course — and received a calm, reassuring “It’s okay!” from the front desk attendant, my perspective began to slightly shift. “At least it’s pretty in here,” I thought.
COMMENTS