23 people clinch that dream job: ‘sleep 9 hours for 100 nights, earn ₹1 lakh’

Twenty one Indians and two foreigners from Slovakia and the US have literally clinched their ‘dream job’ — a job that pays them all of ₹1 lakh to actually ‘sleep’ on the job for nine hours every night, seven nights a week, for a total of 100 nights.

When Wakefit, an online sleep solutions start-up, threw open a brand new job opening for ‘sleep interns’ last November, it did not expect to receive 1.7 lakh applications, including from India and 30 countries for this ‘dream job.’

What makes this job unique is that those who are selected for the ‘sleep internships’ do not have to quit their current jobs or leave the comfort of their homes. All they have to do is go through their routine day at work, get back home and sleep for nine hours every night on mattresses and pillows provided by Wakefit, for 100 nights.

Interestingly, Wakefit’s job posting for Sleep Internships was the most applied to job at LinkedIn. Wakefit launched the digital advertising campaign for ‘sleep internships’ on November 26.

The second round included seeking video resumes where people were asked to share why they love sleep and how they can showcase this love in a creative way. Wakefit received nearly 1,500 video resume entries with animations, song covers and more.

Start-up Wakefit sleep interns

The final round of personal interviews was conducted last Sunday with four judges — Shivankit Singh Parihar (actor/writer), Naveen Kaushik (actor), Cyrus Broacha (TV anchor) and Mallika Dua (comedian).

What it takes to qualify

“The response to the Sleep Internship initiative has truly taken us by surprise. The aim is to create meaningful conversations around sleep in Indian households. We are strong believers in the power of sleep and the success of this campaign is a testament to the potential impact sleep can have on people’s lives,” Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Director and co-founder, Wakefit, told BusinessLine .

Apart from a basic degree, falling asleep during class, the ability to fall asleep within 10-20 minutes of hitting the pillow, past experience of sleeping in any kind of environment irrespective of noise, brightness levels and alarm snoozers and the innate ability to be calm and stress-free before bedtime are some of the requirements for the job.

“We have already given the winners sleep tracker devices (Fitbit Charge 3) and are currently in the process of shipping out our flagship Ortho mattresses and pillows, for them to start the sleep internship in the next 10 days,” said Chaitanya.

Tracking performance

The sleep tracker device will monitor the sleep intern’s REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM cycles, breathing rate, heart rate, correlation between their activity (number of steps) during the day and quality of sleep. The interns also get one session per head via a telephone call to receive guidance and counselling by fitness experts, nutritionists, home makeover experts and psychologists.

“The quality of sleep is directly dependent on the person’s level of activity, what he or she eats, because very spicy food or sugary food for dinner negatively impacts sleep. Being calm and relaxed before sleep is important. Similarly, the bedroom should be airy, well-ventilated. The colour, temperature and the light levels in the bedroom are also important factors that contribute to quality sleep, not to forget the mattresses and pillows they choose. The results of this internship will establish the correlation between all of the above and the quality of sleep” explained Chaitanya.

The winners, in the range of 22- 45 years, are from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Noida, Agra, Gurgaon, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, and Bhopal. The international winners are Sofia Vargova from Slovakia and Morgan Berman from the US.

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