hotels, sleep, best hotels

Between breezing visitors around on private catamarans, popping bottles of Champagne and keeping the bright-white deck pristine, the hyper-thoughtful staff at Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France realized that their guests’ sleep woes might be due to a break from their usual eating habits. So the hotel now leaves carafes of fennel-and-peppermint-infused tinctures by every bed at turndown. The herbs aid digestion and promise to lull you into a restful eight hours.

Midtown’s The Benjamin takes sleep extremely seriously. For one, it offers on-demand meditation: press a button on your room's phone to be led in a 10-minute session, which you can supplement with candles and cushions from room service. And on top of that, it puts each member of staff through a training with sleep consultant Rebecca Robbins. This means if you're wide awake at 9pm—or even 3am—you can call the front desk for some sage advice that should set you snoozing.

Given that Sydney’s at least 20 hours from New York, 20 from London and eight from Singapore, Ozzies are veritable experts in vanquishing jet lag’s drag. One of their secrets is avoiding the nap at all costs, hence the invigorating jet lag recovery treatment at Sydney’s Hotel QT. After a scrub, massage and facial with sea kelp, green tea and magnesium salts, you’ll feel like zipping around town until nightfall—at which point you’ll collapse into a deep sleep.

Exciting and energetic, Tokyo’s neon glow and costumed crowds can also be a bit overstimulating. So at the end of each day, The Park Hyatt Tokyo’s spa treats guests to 30 minutes of complete calm: stretching and breathing exercises to relax muscles. The air’s scented with calming oils, and an herbal tea at the end rounds things out. 

Imagine spending a day zip lining through a rainforest or horseback riding along a mountainside. And after a dinner of yellowfin sashimi and steamed salmon, stepping onto a yoga pavilion surrounded by trees and lit by dozens tea lights. To a soundtrack of lightly chirping tree frogs, you settle into a mellow hour of languorous downward dogs and gentle child’s poses. The idea behind these candle-lit evening yoga sessions is that you'll be relaxed enough to follow the class with a good night's sleep.

If a hot bath is usually enough to send you to slumber, Solage Calistoga’s evening floating meditation sessions will knock you right out. Once the stars are shining over this quiet swath of the wine country, you’ll sit in a mesh chair that’s partially submerged in an open-air geothermal mineral pool. No need to worry about the water going cold: it’s always a comforting 96 or 98 degrees.

How to sleep better on vacation

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