I’ve arrived at The Langham Huntington, a palatial hotel known for its lush gardens, covered bridge, and a history that stretches back almost to the Gilded Age. However, rather than revel in luxury, I’ve come to Pasadena, California, for one specific reason: to finally get a decent night’s sleep. It might seem like overkill to book a hotel simply to catch a few zzz’s, but I’m not alone. Given the events of the last few years, we’re in the middle of a serious sleep crisis.
I know, I know. A few nights at a hotel won’t solve my problems. I’m hoping the excursion at least helps kick-start a lasting change, which might explain why sleep packages have become ubiquitous offerings in upscale hotels. I booked a stay at The Langham to indulge in its comprehensive Sleep Matters package. First, at the hotel’s Chuan Spa, I am treated to a massage based on one of the five Chinese elements. I select water, which is said to address feelings of fear and anxiety — two things that regularly keep me up at night.
Back in my room, I am given a strict pre-bed routine: First, a soak in a warm bath filled with proprietary bath crystals. (They smell a bit like lavender, which makes sense. The flower is known to inspire relaxation.) Next, I drink a chilled CBD beverage filled with enough of the hemp-derived compound to provide a sense of relaxation and increase overall sleep duration. I sip it while listening to a playlist of relaxing ambient music curated in honor of World Sleep Day, which falls this year on March 17. The second I crawl under the covers, I pass out.
While The Langham certainly got me where I wanted to go — asleep in bed, namely — the trappings only begin to touch the surface of what an increasing number of hotels have been doing to assure that guests rest peacefully. Pillow menus, it seems, were just the beginning. Now, accommodations around the world are promoting sleep tourism in an effort to simultaneously raise revenue and lower guests directly into comfy beds.
With wellness continuing to reign as the travel industry’s top buzzword, an entire range of experiences and activities are available to potentially help guests achieve a full eight hours. Here is a sampling of a few of the sleep programs currently being offered at destinations across the globe, ranging from Atlanta to Vienna:
- The spa at the Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead in Georgia features the Enchanted Sleep treatment, which is designed to realign guests’ circadian rhythms with herbs like vetiver, sandalwood, and chamomile.
- For those who suffer from insomnia or have difficulty falling asleep, the Varsana Spa at Palazzo di Varignana in Bologna, Italy, has a special program to help guests rediscover their personal sleep-wake rhythm as well as their clarity of mind and mental abilities utilizing a host of body treatments.
- The new Sleep Enhancement program at the Ananda in the Himalayas in India addresses sleep disorders with lifestyle modifications, dietary corrections, and therapies ranging from Ayurveda to traditional Chinese medicine like acupuncture, cupping, and moxibustion to boost sleep quality and remove associated memory difficulties, cognitive dysfunction, or fatigue.
- For Sleep Awareness Month, Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, California, began offering its Desert Dreamland package, which includes an outdoor yoga class, massage, private soak, and access to a mood bar where guests can select intention-setting essential oils.
- Ette Hotel in Kissimmee, Florida, boasts special Wellness Suites with a variety of sleep-inducing technologies, such as ambient lighting and soundscapes, to create a relaxing and calming environment.
- The BodyHoliday in Saint Lucia in the Caribbean invites guests to slumber deeper thanks to its Sleep Well program, which includes rooms with noise-canceling walls, pillow menus, and herbal teas.
- Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley, Arizona, offers a pre-bed cup of Golden Moon Milk, which contains turmeric, lavender, and cardamom to inspire restful sleep.
- Toronto, Canada’s Hazelton Hotel takes turndown service to the next level to help ensure guests’ unconsciousness. Besides offering a pillow menu, the staff uses a lavender mist to improve sleep quality.
- Every guest checking in to one of the Austria Trend Hotels in Vienna receives a pillow menu, a sleep guide, and organic herbal teas with sleep-promoting effects.
When crafting the sleep program at the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort, Alchemy Wellness Resorts chief wellness officer Tammy Pahel specifically took a high-tech approach. She created a treatment circuit dubbed Sleep Well that combines several elements to work in unison, creating a powerful sleep reset when completed several times over the course of a guest’s stay.
Pahel’s circuit starts with 25 minutes of vibroacoustic, electromagnetic, and infrared therapy (VEMI), which is designed to create a meditative state. It’s followed by a 30-minute float bath targeting muscle relaxation, then another 30 minutes of Spa Wave sound therapy, a mood elevator and body relaxer featuring gently crashing waves and vibrations. Finally, the treatment concludes with 25 minutes of MindSpa, essentially a nap in a zero-gravity chair accompanied by special lighting and relaxing visuals.
Carillon’s program may seem like overkill, but Pahel assures me that the relaxation marathon will inspire beneficial results after the trying times that have led many people to suffer from a lack of sleep. “The whole program of touchless wellness technology and experiences came out of Covid,” she acknowledges. “People were struggling with sleep anxiety, pain management, [and] mental health.”
Many such offerings are aimed at ensuring that a decent night’s sleep isn’t merely a one-off. Castle Hot Springs in Morristown, Arizona, offers sleep retreats where guests have the opportunity to refresh their relationship with sleep by learning more about the mechanics of shut-eye between dips in the resort's hot springs, which are rich in magnesium, a mineral known to increase levels of the sleep hormone melatonin. (The next retreat is set for May 18 to 21.) Run by sleep researcher and Sleep for Success! co-author Dr. Rebecca Robbins, the comprehensive experience offers the opportunity to walk away with impactful knowledge.
“We have crafted a program where I spend three days with guests,” Robbins explains. “We do a total overhaul [of] their schedule. We look at the opportunities they have to improve, and things to do or avoid or reduce in their daily schedule. By the end of the weekend, they will have gotten significantly more content than the typical medical doctor, who only receives about 22 minutes of training on sleep medicine.”
While it might not be worth the time or money to take a mini vacation in order to snooze, adding a sleep package to an existing travel plan may yield beneficial results. Back home, I tried The Langham’s playlist, CBD beverage, and scented bath. I definitely felt drowsy, but the combination didn’t quite have the same blink-and-you’re-out effect as it did under the roof of the luxury hotel.
Perhaps the missing ingredient was taking myself out of my daily routine? After all, you’re less likely to stare at your phone or obsess over work emails — activities we all pay for at bedtime — when there’s a gorgeous garden to wander through or a grand afternoon tea to attend in the hotel lobby.
Laura Studarus is a Los Angeles-based travel writer who has contributed to Fast Company, BBC Travel, and Thrillist.
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