6 Genius Tips I Learned From Staying at a “Sleep-Focused” Hotel

“It’s an unwritten contract, but by nature, by booking at [our] hotel, we’ve been entrusted with the very most important part of anyone’s day,” says DeLois. “You’re paying to sleep at our hotel, and sleep is by far the most important aspect of living a healthy life.” The irony? Most people sleep poorly at hotels in spite of this chief purpose. “So what can we do to improve upon that? By providing this wonderful night’s sleep.”

To do so, he sought counsel from Sleep Wise, a team of 40 consultants who specialize in sleep. While there’s no licensure or standardized training to be what Sleep Wise calls a “sleep consultant,” the company says its team of specialists comprises speech pathologists, occupational therapists, child development specialists and special education teachers who have collectively coached nearly 10,000 families in improved sleep practices. (DeLois calls them “miracle workers”; he hired them to help sleep train his child after working with them on the hotel.)

“The number one issue we see around adults in sleep is anxiety,” says Katie Pitts, founder of Sleep Wise. “We’ve all had it. You go to bed and all of a sudden your mind is thinking of 852 things that you should have done today or that you have to do tomorrow. Hotels provide a very unique opportunity to step away from that and then to be able to start to incorporate some good sleep habits.”

She’s right: A recent study by the National Library of Medicine showed that more than one-quarter of adults do not meet the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night, according to the Centers for Disease Control data. That may be why the Longfellow isn’t the only hotel amping up the sleep factor with the help of similar dedicated sleep experts.

Take Equinox, for example. The hotel chain has launched its own “sleep experience” at its New York location with offerings like a digital Jet Lag Reset tool and a Sleep Well menu with melatonin-rich food and drinks, all developed alongside a sleep scientist. The brand confirmed it plans to roll out the offerings at every new property in the coming years.

Then there’s the growing popularity of AI-powered Bryte beds, which claim to keep sleepers at an optimal temperature, detect and adapt to pressure points for relief, track sleep patterns and provide insights. Bryte presently partners with more than 20 luxury hotel properties, like the Carillon Wellness Resort in Miami, the Park Hyatt in New York and Chicago and The Little Nell in Aspen, as well as 79 additional U.S. hospitality properties.

In addition to the Longfellow, properties like the Aman New York and various Four Seasons locations also tout sleep-optimized rooms (think blackout curtains and soundproofing around doors and windows) and spa offerings that are specifically tailored to promote restful sleep, like deep-sleep massages, relaxing sound baths, meditation loungers and even sleep IVs to quickly dose guests with specialized blends of relaxation-boosting vitamins and nutrients. All of this for the goal of giving guests the best sleep of their lives while away from the comforts of home.

My experience sleeping in “certified ideal sleep conditions”

Staying at the Longfellow, a sleep-optimized hotel.

What keeps DeLois up at night? Ironically, sleep. That’s why he built the Longfellow with solutions to his most common sleep-busting gripe: “I always sleep very poorly in other hotels.” Pitts worked with the Longfellow team to provide what she calls a “360º plan to touch on all parts of the guests’ experience, from the buildings to the messaging to the products to the food [and the] bedtime snacks that they offer.”

“We really wanted to focus on making sure that we can provide the most comfortable, quiet sleeping environment that one can have. The walls are double thick,” DeLois adds, saying he honed in on “really minute details [like] electrical outlets that are wrapped in rubber [to mitigate] room-to-room sound.”

I appreciate this, as a certified sleepy girl myself. My need for (and love of) sleep is one of my most defining characteristics. I need a minimum of nine hours to function well, 12 to function kindly. And I sadly am also the kind of light sleeper who will wake up if my white noise machine so much as skips. All said, it makes me the perfect candidate to test these claims. Could I really catch my most restful ZZZs at a hotel?

Sleep-supporting tips at the Longfellow Hotel.

Upon my arrival, the Longfellow allows me to check in early (and I mean early early: 11 a.m.), so I can nap. I immediately feel seen. My room is appointed with blackout curtains and a Loftie alarm clock with built-in meditations, white noise and sound baths to make this midday snooze a reality. My room door, like all others in the 48-room hotel, is outfitted with a rubber seal with the goal of blocking out light and reducing hallway sound. And should I need help drifting off, there’s a pamphlet by my bed with sleep-supporting tips. I don’t even need to reach for it; I immediately fall asleep.

In the evening, I head down to the Five of Clubs, the hotel’s lobby bar, for an Amarelle, the bar’s signature functional beverage that aims to promote sleep via melatonin-rich tart cherry juice. “Tart cherry juice can be really great for sleep,” Pitts says. “We recommend a half cup 30 minutes before bed. That can be [helpful] if you really struggle with insomnia.”

I also stop by Astrea, the on-site spa, to meditate in an anti-gravity lounger and check out the private sauna suite that’s aimed at R&R (although the sounds from an adjacent gym prove distracting). The spa’s sleep-inducing Mindful Dreams massage is the standout: It incorporates mindful breathing and a scalp massage to help lull you into a state of bliss.

The Longfellow’s Amarelle with tart cherry juice.

The private sauna suite at The Longfellow to promote relaxation.

Following this dreamy regimen, I shuffle back to my room and see that there’s been turndown service for both me and my dog, with lowered lights and sachets of Grace Farms tea waiting for me. I notice that the lights are dimmable throughout the room right down to the overhead one in the shower to keep things sleep-friendly (though oddly, the bedside lamps are not adjustable). I wind down, boot up the Loftie again, place my own white noise machine by the door, meditate and head to sleep.

Throughout the night, I do still stir from hallway noise; housekeeping carts roll by, and the thuds of other doors closing jar me from my slumber a few times. But even though my room overlooks busy Congress Street, I impressively don’t hear much street sound. DeLois says that’s because “the windows are triple pane, which, when they are closed and locked, [makes] it near impossible to hear the street.” I have to agree.

Overall, it’s not the best sleep I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s much better than the sleep I’ve gotten in other hotels and even at home — to the point that when I’m back in the area several months later, I book another stay.

The windows at the Longfellow Hotel are triple pane to reduce street noise.

Sleeping better at home

Of course, this focus on improved sleep shouldn’t be limited to travel days and luxury hotels. There are plenty of sleep-friendly improvements to be made at home, as recommended by the experts we spoke with who focus on sleep for a living:

Create the right environment.

“Ideally, you’re going to make your room as dark as possible,” says Pitts. “Aim for like a cave. It’s cool, it’s dark, it’s quiet.” DeLois has taken this advice to great success. “I definitely have gotten rid of all LED lights in my room,” he says, down to covering up operating lights on fans, appliances and smoke detectors. “Subtle things like that can really can affect your sleep.” Pitts recommends an optimal sleep temperature of 64-68ºF and turning off screens an hour before bed.

Banish as much blue light as possible.

Pitts suggests “about 60 to 90 minutes of non-screen time before bed.” She says that’s because the blue light that comes from screens “acts like a concrete wall that blocks melatonin from coming into your body, and melatonin is like the bullhorn that tells your body, okay, it’s time for sleep.” This blue light exposure from phones and electronics “impacts not only the quality, but the quantity of sleep as well.”

As for loopholes, she says switching your devices to night mode, wearing blue light-blocking glasses and switching lights out for dimmable, blue-light blocking lightbulbs may help you sleep better all help, but really aren’t enough to entirely mitigate the negative sleep-interrupting effects.

Be vigilant about your bedtime and waking time.

Pitts says it’s essential to “wake up and go to bed within about 30 minutes of the same time every day. That’s really going to set your body up for knowing when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to be awake, help with not tossing and turning at night, help not waking up so groggy.”

Get the right kind of sleep, at the right time for your body.

While the general recommendation for adults is seven to nine hours of sleep a night, Pitts says that for the best gauge, “try not to count the clock, try to look at how you feel.” There’s also no optimal bedtime for everyone, she says. “That’s going to depend on each person’s specific chronotype, which is essentially your body clock.” Sleep Wise’s free chronotype quiz can help you identify your ideal sleep schedule. (I’m an owl.) For your most restful sleep, Pitts recommends determining “what your chronotype is, look at your lifestyle and… get as close to that as possible.”

Consider ambient noise.

Opt for an alarm clock like the Loftie that not only can go fully dark but includes ambient sound options and offers gentle wake-ups. “How it starts to wake you up is really important,” says DeLois, who also bought one for his own home. “It doesn’t just start going off, it actually rhythmically goes up a little bit and down and up a little bit until it finally goes off to wake you up in the most subtle of ways.” (FYI, our product-testing experts also love the Loftie).

Additionally, Pitts says that if you live in a noisy area (me) or tend to wake up easily from outside sounds (also me), white noise machines can be a great addition. “I recommend something with natural white noise,” she says, adding that the Dohm is her “favorite white noise machine by far” because it’s “not manufactured sound.” (The Dohm utilizes a fan instead of a recording of white noise with adjustable loudness.)

THE BEST ALARM CLOCK FOR SLEEP

Loftie Clock

THE LONGFELLOW’S FAVORITE TEA

Grace Farms Chamomile Citrus Herbal Tea

PITTS’ FAVORITE SCENT

Thistle Farms Calm Essential Oil

BLUE LIGHT-BLOCKING BULBS

UNILAMP Sleep Light Bulb

TOP-RATED WHITE NOISE

Marpac Yogasleep Dohm UNO White Noise Machine

OUR DIETITIAN’S TOP PICK

MegaFood Magnesium Supplements

Try out sleep-supporting supplements.

“Magnesium is great for your sleep,” says Pitts, who recommends Epsom salts or a topical spray (our own Good Housekeeping Institute nutritionists also like using magnesium supplements). “You can travel with something like lemon balm tea, chamomile tea, essential oils are great too — lavender and jasmine are the two smells that we like the most,” says Pitts.

But while gadgets and supplements are helpful, they won’t work without the right sleeping environment and mentality. In fact, when I asked Pitts to reveal the one thing in her bedroom that radically changed her life, she said, “my mindset around sleep. Products are great, but to fix your sleep, you don’t need to buy a thing.”

Perhaps not even a night in a luxury hotel.

Jessica (she/her) is the director of editorial commerce and product reviews with over a decade of experience as a product tester, reviewer, writer and editor of beauty and lifestyle content. Previously she was the beauty editor at USA Today’s Reviewed where she launched the Beauty vertical and tested hundreds of products and has covered trends for publications like The Boston Globe and The New York Times. You can usually find her sorting through piles of beauty products — and testing the best ones on camera.