Vertical Bed you can lug along for power naps

Juniper Foo | Nov 06, 2009

From the back, you'd think this New Yorker has a disability, thanks to the neck and body braces. (Credit: Substitute Materials)

We've heard of sleep pod facilities in New York for sleep-deprived cubicle dwellers seeking some shuteye. But now, here's one way to have your power nap upright while still appearing to keep to the spirit of a city that never sleeps.

Around the front, he's taking a power nap. (Credit: Substitute Materials)

The formidable Commuter Chin Stand from Japan. (Credit: Tokyo Times)

Substitute Materials's kit, built with the help of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space Program, was actually tried and tested to work during a 40-minute snooze along Broadway. Out of the box, you have a Vertical Bed that attaches conveniently to any subway ventilation grating for prop support; opaque subglasses; free standing brolly; and noise-canceling headphones. And it all collapses into a totable briefcase.

That said, this isn't as elegantly simple as Japan's chindogu (art of un-useless idea) solution, the Commuter Chin Stand. Plus, it's always a bad idea to catch 40 winks in the middle of the Big Apple, where you'll be easy pickings for light-fingered pickpockets who'll clean you of everything but the braces you stand in. In short, you snooze, you lose.