How many times have you needed that five-minute nap to boost your day?

Me, countless times. I live for five minute naps, which is why I struggle with a full day’s work.

Well, South Korea is on it. In 2015, Jung Woon-mo, 59, opened Shim Story. A “public convenience lounge”, Jung realised that ” stressed out and exhausted Koreans had few public parks or other resting areas to go to during their lunch hours in the capita,” explains Quartz:

Customers, who also include tired students looking for some downtime before going to tutoring sessions, pay 7,000 won ($6.20) to nap for an hour with a drink included.

When can we get this in Cape Town?

But nap cafes are part of a bigger movement.

A growing industry known as “fast healing” is taking hold as tired but time-poor South Koreans look for “quick fixes to soothe not only their bodies, but also their minds”:

It’s an industry that encompasses everything from massage chairs to yoga to mattresses—the word “sleeponomics” is used to describe the rapidly growing industry servicing Korea’s sleep deprived.

A “healing fair” held earlier this year in Seoul had over 300 booths selling “healing” products, as well as activities including group yoga, ornament-making classes, and seminars, including one titled “The solution to brain fatigue that makes a happy life.”

And the idea extends into politics: President Moon Jae-in has promised to “take all of his allotted 21 days of paid leave this year to set a good example for people”.

That’s not all:

Moon has pledged to reduce working hours to about 1,800 hours a year, partly in order to increase jobs. Working hours went down after Korea began shifting from a six-day to a five-day work week over a decade ago but that trend has stalled, and one in five employees still works more than 54 hours a week.

Then again, calling for nap cafes in a city where people work a 10-3 day doesn’t make that much sense, now does it?

I guess we’re playing catch up around these parts. If you do find yourself exhausted, give Sleep Renewal a call and they can help you sort all that out.

[source:quartz]