The world’s first Instagram ‘sleep influencer’ told us about his life of snoozing in luxury hotels and jet setting across the globe

• London native Alex Shannon – better known as @FollowTheNap on Instagram – jet sets around the world to sleep in some of the most luxurious hotel suites money can buy.
• The 35-year-old sleep influencer has napped everywhere from the deserts of the United Arab Emirates to presidential suites in Paris.
• Shannon spoke to Insider about his favorite destinations, the ins and outs of his sleep influencer lifestyle, and what’s to come from @FollowTheNap.
• You can follow Shannon on his worldwide quest for sleep on Instagram.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

From travel and food bloggers to Instagram models and fashion figures, influencers have seemingly taken over the globe in almost every respect.

But London native Alex Shannon – better known as @FollowTheNap on Instagram – found a gap in the market, and he’s been making himself comfortable there ever since.

Shannon is the first ever “sleep influencer” to amass a significant following on the internet. The 35-year-old jet sets around the world to sleep in some of the most luxurious hotel suites money can buy.

Through his gorgeous, staged photos and tongue-in-cheek captions that “kind of poke fun at the whole influencer thing itself,” Shannon has amassed an Instagram following of more than 19,000. He told Insider about his favorite destinations, the ins and outs of his sleep influencer lifestyle, and what’s to come from @FollowTheNap.

Alex Shannon — a 35-year-old from London better known as @FollowTheNap on Instagram — is taking the influencer craze in a brand new direction.

While tons of influencers focus on food, travel, and clothing through their social media personas, Shannon noticed that there was a glaring absence in the field.

"Essentially I saw that so many influencers are creating the same kind of content," Shannon told Insider. "They're all identical. Everyone's doing the same thing and saying the same thing. For a while I just had lodged in my mind that I would love to create something on Instagram that was a little bit of an antidote to that."

Shannon is the first ever "sleep influencer" to amass a significant following on Instagram.

He jet sets around the world to sleep in some of the most luxurious hotel suites money can buy.

Through his gorgeous, staged photos and tongue-in-cheek captions that "kind of poke fun at the whole influencer thing itself," Shannon has amassed an Instagram following of more than 19,000.

http://instagr.am/p/BtywArDHmwJ

And, fittingly, the idea for Follow the Nap came to him in a dream: "I'm a really vivid dreamer so I keep a notebook next to my bed. One morning I woke up and I had written 'Follow the Nap Instagram, sleep and travel' and I was kind of like 'Oh, that's an interesting idea.'"

"Nobody has ever really done anything like this for sleep before," Shannon said. "It's a huge part of our lives, so I think that novelty draws people in."

He's stayed at the iconic 11 Cadogan Gardens hotel in London's Chelsea neighborhood...

sipped on a cappuccino sprinkled with 24-karat gold flakes at the Armani Hotel Dubai...

and enjoyed the view from a suite in Le Metropolitan in Paris.

Shannon told Insider that one of his favorite destinations to date was the Mandarin Oriental in Paris.

"That was by far the most luxurious I've ever stayed at, both in terms of the actual rooms themselves and service and the way I was treated," Shannon said. "It was the first room I walked into and I couldn't breathe or speak because it was just beyond anything I had ever thought really existed."

He's visited many other fabulous destinations as well, and he isn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

He still has plenty of places that he's itching to explore: "Number one on my list has always been Tokyo and I've never managed to make it there," Shannon said. "I've never visited Asia so I'm hoping to do an Asia trip... There's so many others. I've never been to Greece, Iceland, Brazil, Australia, or New Zealand."

Even though he loves what he does, Shannon revealed that his influencer lifestyle isn't nearly as relaxing as it may seem.

"The days are actually really jam-packed which seems in massive contrast to what my feed presents," Shannon said. "If I'm staying at one particular hotel, I'll set up a shoot that spans the entire day that generally involves various rooms. We get photo and video for each and I try to have a unique concept which involves having different props like food, balloons, teddy bears, or pajamas... The process itself is usually a bit hectic."

He also has to locate and hire photographers.

http://instagr.am/p/BtB6TY9n8Su

"I try to find one or two photographers to work with wherever I'm traveling," Shannon said. "If I don't know anyone in the area, I'll just do a lot of research online and on Instagram and try to find a few that I think would be able to capture the type of stuff I'm looking for."

http://instagr.am/p/BsTQzBwnyW5

On top of all that, Shannon uses his spare time wisely while he's traveling.

He often meets with multiple hotels, vendors, and travel companies in every destination he visits to forge future partnerships.

Sometimes, he even does daytime shoots in hotels he isn't actually sleeping in to maximize his output from each trip.

"Even though it's all based on laziness, I would hope people can see that there is a lot of thought and planning that goes into it," Shannon said.

Still, Shannon said he feels it's "absolutely surreal" to be living the sleep influencer lifestyle.

"This is going to sound so cheesy but what's made it really nice is to have people sending me messages saying 'your post really made me smile today' or 'that was so funny!'" Shannon said. "That part of it has been really wonderful."

http://instagr.am/p/Br3hGw3HtKG

Shannon currently runs Follow The Nap while working a full-time job as an editorial director for Barefoot Scientist in Los Angeles.

And he's used his many years of experience in editorial and social media in the fashion industry as a basis for his work as a sleep influencer.

But he has no immediate plans to take the Instagram influencing full-time: "I think one day I would consider it, but right now I actually really enjoy having the balance of full-time and doing this on the side."

Still, Shannon recognizes that his concept has loads of potential, and he's eager to see where it goes down the line.

He said working with Aman, the hotel group responsible for some of the most luxurious resorts in the world, would be "a pinnacle that would be incredible."

He also has a goal to team up with more "high-end, designer pajama brands."

http://instagr.am/p/Br8CweZHkmu

And he's thought about spinning off in other directions as well: "Would I want a pajama line? Would I want to have a YouTube series? I don't know where to take it next in a way that's fun and meaningful but not something everyone else has already done."

http://instagr.am/p/BvHsauAnywy

So he wants to hear other people's ideas as well: "I'd be very interested to see where people think this could go."

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