Snore!

October 8th, 2022| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

“Sleep tourism.” Yup, it’s a thing. And growing in popularity, too, CNN reports.

Hotel establishments are now focusing on those potentially hapless clients who may be suffering sleep-deprivation, what with the pandemic, threat of nuclear war, economy, elections, and so forth.

Over the past 12 months, Park Hyatt New York has opened the Bryte Restorative Sleep Suite, a 900-square-foot suite filled with sleep-enhancing amenities. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts recently launched a collection of retreats called the Alchemy of Sleep, which are designed to “promote rest.” Zedwell, London’s first sleep-centric hotel, which features rooms equipped with innovative soundproofing, opened in early 2020, and Swedish bed manufacturer Hästens (purveyor of mattresses and springs ranging from $10,000–30,000!) established the world’s first Hästens Sleep Spa Hotel, a 15-room boutique hotel, in the Portuguese city of Coimbra a year later.

CNN Travel investigated why sleep had suddenly become such a big focus for the travel industry?
Dr. Rebecca Robbins, a sleep researcher and writer (Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep But are Too Tired to Ask) believes this shift has been a long time coming, particularly with regards to hotels.

People often associate travel with decadent meals, extending their bed times, the attractions and the things you do while you’re traveling, really almost at the cost of sleep. Now I think there’s just been a huge seismic shift in our collective awareness and prioritization on wellness and wellbeing.”

The global pandemic appears to have played a huge part in this. A study published last year in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (“Escalation of Sleep Disturbances amid the COVID-19 Pandemic”) found that 40% of the over 2,500 adults who took part reported a reduction in their sleep quality since the start of the pandemic.

CNN also quoted hypnotherapist, meditation and holistic coach Malminder Gill; he, too, has noticed a change in attitudes towards sleep:

Everything seems to be moving towards longevity, and I think that has really fueled things. Because it’s no great surprise that sleep is an important aspect of our lives. Lack of sleep can cause lots of different issues in the body, and for your mental health. So, anxiety, depression, low mood, mood swings—all sorts of things, on top of the tiredness.”

For Gill, the emergence of more and more of these types of experiences is a sign that the “narrative of staying up to get things done,” is being challenged, and people are beginning to have a deeper understanding of just how important sleep is.

Amen to that! Give me my zzzz’s.

[But I’ve found a lack of sleep during my nights to be a wonderful diagnostic tool to gauge the quality of sermons. A bit of sleep deprivation + a lousy sermon = nodding off in church/chapel/classroom. In other words, if I fall asleep during a sermon, it gets an F.]

Sleep tight. But Christians already knew that.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone [are] Yahweh;
You make me to dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8

Indeed, it is futile to do otherwise, to stay up and work, work, work, because God’s blessings come to us … even when we sleep.

Worthless [it is] for you—
the early ones to rise, the late ones to sit,
the ones eating the bread of very painful toil;
… He gives to His beloved—[in] sleep.
Psalm 127:2

Besides, God, our keeper, is one who does not need “sleep tourism” …

Behold, He will not slumber and He will not sleep—
the one who keeps Israel.
Psalm 121:2, 4

Time to retire!

SOURCE:
CNN; Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine