Saturday, July 24, 2010

Y = Yelo

Napping is rare in the City that never sleeps but in New York where you can pay for anything your heart desires, it was no surprise to find out that you can pay to take a nap in Midtown (office workers central). Enabling you to continue burning yourself out working and playing in this ridiculously amazing place.

Yelo is a spa on West 57th Street that features five YeloCabs, special coccoon shaped pods that you can book for 15, 20 or 25 minute sessions to literally just take a nap. Yelo extolls the virtues napping has on your health and wellness and on a Friday evening after a busy week we thought what could be better than trying it out.

It's cheap as chips, only $15 for a 20 minute nap. Yes I know, we could just go home and lay down in bed for 20 minutes for free but I'm suckered into the idea of a womb-like experience to lull my tired mind into a calm blissful state ready for a fun, action-packed, New York weekend. You get to choose your music - I chose Zen, Si chose Medieval chants?! - and your aromatherapy scent - I chose Detox, Si chose Refresh - then you're taken into the YeloCab and you climb on to the YeloChair. It's a big wide squidgy chair that you lay down on, the nice lady covers you in the softest blanket I've ever felt and wraps your bare feet in a warmed towel, she then presses a button and you move backwards so you're laying flat but your legs are raised and pulled towards your chest, this is intended to help slow your heart rate. She leaves and the lights slowly go down until it's totally black.

It's incredibly calming and you can feel the stress leave your body as you do lots of deep sighing and yawning. I wish I could've dropped off but I was quite pumped up with the Friday feeling and thinking about what restaurant we should head to and whether I fancied a glass of white or red. I tried to focus on sleep knowing I only had 20 minutes to feel the benefits of my Yelo Nap but it didn't come, especially as I'd now moved on to the dreaded "lists" mapping out what I needed to sort out over the next few days on mental post-it notes. However, when the lights slowly starting to come on I did feel chilled and like I'd had a moment away from it all to relax and just get away. Si came out totally loving the experience, he'd been on about 10 flights in the last 3 weeks so he really napped, out straight away. Would I recommend it - yep! Definitely go if you're feeling stressed out or if you're jetlagged, you know that 3pm mad-cow syndrome that you get after catching the red-eye? Well this is definitely the solution, don't fight it just Yelo Nap it. $15 well spent!

Only in New York!

1 comment:

  1. Haha, I always wondered what that was like since I used to pass it all the time. Thanks for the reco - might have to give it a try!

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