The Japanese Sleeping Capsule For Nighttime Workaholics

Do you ever work late at your office? I do all the time. Misty and I have joked many times that we’ve woken up in the middle of the night with keyboard forehead, which is the impression your keyboard makes on your skin when you fall asleep on it. Lucky for me though, since I work from home, I only have to walk into the other room when I’m ready to get into bed. If you work at an office outside your home, and if you work late, finding a place to sleep is probably a challenge.

In Japan, where successful business men and women have insane work ethics, working late is not only common, but in many places, expected. What is a person to do when he or she doesn’t have time to drive home at night since it’s so late? What if there isn’t enough time to go home and sleep before the next workday begins? Faced with that predicament, people in Japan can either work all night long (and run the risk of getting keyboard forehead), or they can sleep in one of these hotel capsules.

These coffin-sized rooms (if you can call them rooms) are just big enough to watch a little TV, check email and sleep. They are stacked on top of each other and have one bathroom for all the people in that group to share. It costs between $30 and $50 to rent one of these for the night, and it’s expected that more and more people will start renting them by the month. These remind me of the sleeping pods we’ve written about before which are in airports around the world. Wow, when I first glanced at these pictures, I thought they were laundry dryers stacked on top of each other. I suppose it’s a great way to optimize space and solve a late night working problem all at the same time.

Via: [Amusing Planet]