Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi has an airport where most people alight only to catch another plane.

The UAE is at a sort of crossroads of the Old World. If you want to go from Moscow south to South Africa, you may well change planes in the UAE. Going from Europe to the east of Asia? Your best fare may well take you through Dubai. Or Abu Dhabi.

That leads to layovers, and layovers are always tedious and the tedium of long stretches of waiting has led to … futuristic-looking sleeping pods in Abu Dhabi’s (new) Terminal 3.

I have mixed feelings about this.

It fills a need. And the concept is clever. Developed by a Swedish company, and intended for a roll-out in Copenhagen’s airport, Abu Dhabi jumped in and ordered a half-dozen of the “Uni” pods … and there they are.

For now, they cost the traveler nothing. You walk up to an empty pod, which (when unoccupied) looks like a business-class airplane seat, and it’s yours. You may want to take off your shoes, stretch out on the chair, which goes flat, and close the wings of the chair above you, for privacy … and dreamland should not be far off.

A bit of light gets in, and a reporter from The National suggested it was not a claustrophobic experience.

That being said … I’m not sure I want to jump right into a chair where half a dozen other globetrotters may have been snoring and drooling in the previous 24 hours. At crossroads airports like those in the UAE, potential hothouses of germs moving east or west (or north or south) … “Who’s been sleeping in my bed?” is a pertinent question.

The story mentions “attendants”, and I think I would like to see them go over the pod with some disinfectant as soon as the previous pod person has exited the chamber. Air it out a bit.

This could be the wave of the future. People who can’t afford to use a lounge (they have sleeping areas in those, don’t they?) but who are desperate for some sleep or to make the time pass a bit more quickly without resorting to flopping on the hard floor of a terminal.

I will give this a bit more time. Wait till more reviews come in. I see the upsides … but I also know I wouldn’t want to sleep in a bed a bunch of others have been using.