Health club chain David Lloyd trials napping sessions

UK health club chain David Lloyd has trialled a sleep class concept in one of its health clubs.

The class, known as “Napercise,” was trialled at the David Lloyd Sidcup club in southeast London on Saturday, April 29 and Sunday April 30. 

The Napercise classes are 45-minute sleep sessions that are, David Lloyd says, “designed to reinvigorate the mind, body and even burn the odd calorie”.

The classes, which were fully booked, saw participants nap in single beds, to the background sound of relaxing, atmospheric music. The heath club chain explained that the temperature in the room was also “dropped to a level that promotes calorie burning during sleep”.

Specifically geared towards sleep-deprived parents, the classes were introduced in response to research carried out by David Lloyd earlier this year, which showed that 86% of parents regularly suffer from fatigue.

The survey, carried out on 1,000 British parents with children between 0-18 years old, also found that 70% of parents find lack of sleep makes it difficult to effectively complete their everyday tasks.

19% said they had napped at work as a result of not getting enough sleep at night, while 11% admitted it had seen them drift off to sleep while driving. 

5% of parents said they had even forgotten to pick up their children from school as a result of exhaustion. 26% of respondents said they regular get less than five hours sleep a night.

Stress was found to be a leading cause, with 43% citing this as the main reason for not sleeping. This was followed by being kept up by children, which 26% quoted as the main factor behind a lack of sleep, and long working hours – highlighted by 17%.

A spokesperson for David Lloyd Clubs said: “We’re always looking for new ways to tackle the issues that everyday families face, which is what Napercise sets out to do.

“Filling an exercise studio with beds might look unusual, but if it proves to be a success, we’re definitely excited at the possibility of rolling out the programme to more of our clubs down the line.”