Sleep Wellness Travel has Arrived

The prioritization of sleep education.

More travellers are forgoing itineraries jam-packed with activities from dawn to dusk. Instead, they’re consulting pillow menus and retiring on the early side.

Welcome to the age of sleep tourism, where a growing number of hotels are offering amenities and services, including access to a slate of in-house sleep experts, to help guests get a healthy dose of rest. The sleep tourism market is estimated to grow by nearly 8% and by over $400 billion between 2023 and 2028.

“Guests are increasingly valuing sleeping when they’re traveling and getting a good night’s rest on the road,” says Rebecca Robbins, a sleep scientist at Harvard’s Division of Sleep Medicine and co-author of Sleep for Success!.

The growing $814 billion wellness tourism industry has capitalized on an overwhelming interest in “slow travel”—voyaging for relaxation and reconnecting with wellness habits. In one recent survey, a vast majority of respondents—over 94%—said they want to experience slow travel. This comes as more hotels across the globe are becoming ambassadors in sleep tourism, offering sleep trackers, retreats and guidance from sleep doctors.

“Gone are the days of traveling and coming home exhausted,” Robbins says. “The idea that travel could restore you—to cognitively learn things and experience new things and also physically and mentally get the rest you need to power your trip and to allow you to return home rested—is a really exciting proposition.”

In a survey of over 600 travellers, Robbins, who also teaches sleep science classes at Sonesta hotels, found only one in three were satisfied with their sleep during their last travel experience. “One of the most important outcomes from that study found that sleeping while traveling was a significant predictor of the likelihood a guest would return.”

Robbins says while hotels often focus on promoting their nightlife options and restaurants, they can also benefit from travellers’ desire and need to improve their sleep. “After all, hotels are the core provider of a good night’s rest,” she says.

Hotels have long provided amenities like masks, blackout shades, and comfortable pillows, but many brands are expanding their suite of sleep-boosting offerings. Several of Hilton’s locations offer “power down” amenities, including temperature-adjusting mattresses and dim light settings, according to Amanda Al-Masri, the vice president of wellness at Hilton.

For those who want to dedicate their entire getaway to wellness, Six Senses, with locations across the globe, including in Greece, India, and Fiji, gives guests a curated sleep program. The stay includes sleep meditations and a two-night sleep tracker, providing insights into sleep duration and quality, along with guidance from in-house sleep doctors. A five-night stay starts at over $1,000, and guests can typically go from three to 10 nights.

Robbins says the collective sleep epidemic plaguing many is cause for concern as optimal sleep remains a vital pillar of healthy physical and mental well-being. One in three adults do not get the recommended hours of sleep each night, perpetuated by 24/7 technology and the rise in mental health conditions like anxiety and depression that can keep people awake.

For many, there’s no better time to prioritize sleep than on vacation. For those who can access them, amenities that can help improve sleep quality and duration include thick curtains to block out light, a distraction-free room, and resources on wind-down routines such as mindfulness guides.

Dr. Rebecca Robbins is a sleep scientist and co-author of Sleep for Success!

Dr. Robbins is Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Scientist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research uses marketing and novel communication tools and technologies (i.e., smartphones and other mobile devices) to design persuasive behavior change interventions to improve sleep and circadian health .

Her research has appeared in such peer-reviewed publications as JAMA Network Open, Plos ONE, Sleep Health, Prevention Science, Health Communication, Preventing Chronic Disease, and the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. In 2011, Dr. Robbins co-authored a book on techniques for how to get good sleep entitled Sleep for Success! with Dr. James B. Maas.
Dr. Robbins’ research has appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and Readers' Digest. She has appeared in National television segments for The Today Show, Live! With Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, Fox Business News, ABC Nightline, CNBC, and CBS This Morning. Dr. Robbins holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Health Marketing from Cornell University. She has held a teaching position in psychology at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar.

Credit : Article on Fortune Well, January 20th 2024.

https://fortune.com/well/article/sleep-tourism-wellness-travel/