Napping may not yet be fully accepted in the U.S. workplace, but Yelo's Ronco was born in Tunisia, where afternoon naps are necessary in order to get through the hot day. Ronco says he also saw lots of midday naps during business trips to South Korea and Japan. When he moved to New York in the late 1980s to work for Time Warner, "I was seeing interesting behavior," Ronco says. "Around 2 p.m., people would go to the bathroom and stay for an hour, napping. People fell asleep in meetings around 3 p.m."

Ronco himself was taking a regular afternoon nap in those days, retreating to his apartment, a few blocks away, for 25 minutes or so, and says the difference in his afternoon was great. He could stay at the office until 9 p.m. or later.

"Before founding Yelo," Ronco says, "I talked to corporations like Time Warner and asked H.R., ‘Would you pay your employees to sleep on the job?' And they said, ‘Absolutely,'  Companies in intellectual property, where you're using people's brains, are anxious to keep people at their jobs longer by providing benefits."

One million dollars later-Ronco raised startup funds from friends and family-Yelo made its debut. Yelo was named to evoke the feelings of joy, warmth, and safety that Ronco says is associated with the color yellow. He pared the word down for a simple, cross-cultural moniker. In addition to professionals like Tsunis and employees of big media companies, who make up 50 percent of his client base, Yelo gets new mothers who can't find a minute to sleep at home, and even a psychotherapist who deals with addictive personalities who comes in as often as three times a week.

He says he hopes to open three more centers in Manhattan next year-one in the Wall Street area, and two in midtown near Grand Central Terminal and near Central Park-to take advantage of the consulting firms and banks located nearby. He also has Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco offices in his sights.

While sleep may be a precious commodity, the bulk of Yelo's revenue comes from the center's reflexology and massage treatments. Naps account for 25 percent, and the remainder is earned through product sales, including those for aromatherapy and homeopathy. Expenses include payroll and rent: the 57th Street location has 12 employees and 1,800 square feet of space.

The two nap centers in Manhattan may be different enough to avoid direct competition. But one thing they have in common: battling skepticism from anti-nappers.

"Beyond the day-to-day productivity and mood boost associated with a 20-minute nap, people who take a brief nap three times a week see up to a 37 percent decrease in mortality from heart disease," says Chowdhury, who takes three 15-minute naps a week, in response to those who call corporate napping a waste of time and company resources.
 
"Convincing someone that taking a nap during the day is good for them is like convincing someone that smoking cigarettes is bad for them," he says.