A good night’s rest at the hotel costs about $1,700. The Sleep Lab, Equinox Hotel‘s latest foray into sleep optimization—and there’s a two night minimum. It’s a big price tag for a big promise: that your hotel room can give you all the tools you need—live data intake, tailored amenities—to maximize your rest. It’s up to travelers to stop getting in their own way.
The hospitality industry has been interested in the brand for a long time. sleep tourismIn addition to the annual Sleep Symposium that the hotel already hosts, experts from the nexus of tech and wellbeing (a sweet spot which informs its identity) will convene with guests not just for panel discussion but also for soundscapes or spa circuits. But the Sleep Lab, developed in collaboration with sleep scientist Dr. Matthew Walker, is an individual guest experience—they’ve set aside four Premiere King Rooms with dual views of the Hudson to the west and New York City The skyline is oriented to the east in order to enhance sleep quality. A piece of paper left on the bedside table makes it easy for guests to self-guide through PM and AM rituals—use the bedside iPad to set your personalized sleep and wake times, the bedside phone (yes, there’s both) to select your ideal mattress temperature. The bed is also a kind of fitness tracker. In testing mode, it will give you an assessment of the sleep stages based upon your movements during the night.
The psychological state of the individual at the time of bedtime is a factor in the effect that environmental conditions have on sleep. On a misty, Wednesday afternoon I am dreading the next night of “sober sleeping” because I haven’t drunk in a while. The rare nights that I don’t consume alcohol, I am able to enter REM more deeply and quickly than I can on the nights I drink.I am far from the only one.) As a result, I have vivid and often disturbing dreams—a recurring nightmare since childhood sees me wander through my grandparents’ former home, my POV smooth and uncanny, like a camera on a track. When I reach the backyard, an eerie, disembodied Lovecraftian voice says, “It is too late.” The dead leaves rattle through the grass as a voice says, “There’s nothing you could do.”
I am hoping not to have this dream, or anything like it, in the Sleep Lab—which is spacious at 468 square feet and actually does feel like a true laboratory, with its cool temperature (cool temperature being key for sleep) and crisp white palette. The fog outside my window would have me staring straight down at the sky. Empire State Building; the king-size bed has two separate duvets, one for each potential bedfellow, which I’m told is standard in all hotel rooms—Sleep Lab or not—as a means of combating sleep divorceIs a situation where a couple has to go to bed separately because they can’t sleep together? I set the tablet by my bed to 10:30 p.m. bedtime, and 6:30 am rise time. The lights and temperature will slowly decrease thirty minutes prior bedtime.
With sleep time in motion, I order room service (sleep-well items like bone broth and chamomile tea supercharged with tulsi and skullcap are available at additional cost—I go for the latter) and busy myself with further PM Ritual: Wind-down is recommended starting 45 minutes before bed, but I have nothing else to do and figure there’s no harm in getting a jump on a circadian breath-work meditation on the television, and a serene soundscape listening session during which I sprawl out belly up on the cool, cool bed. The time is 9:30 pm and I feel like going to sleep. So, decide to drift off earlier. Then, as I was about do it, I suddenly realized I hadn’t used the steam bath. I leapt out of bed to turn it off. So begins the self-destructive half-hour of sleep.
