5) Spa Real Estate Mania -
Since 2004, when SpaFinder first noted this trend, the number of residential communities with a spa/healthy living component has grown from a handful to more than 250. With spas adding residences, developers adding spas, and hotels/resorts with spas adding condo units, SpaFinder predicts that the number of mixed-use developments with a strong spa focus will grow to roughly 300 well before the end of 2008.

This trend is being fueled by a quickening stream of health-focused baby boomers entering the real estate market to downsize or purchase vacation homes. Interestingly, they're being joined by more and more young families attracted by the idea of their kids growing up in communities with plenty of outdoor activities and healthy activities (a welcome prevention to childhood obesity and diabetes). The real estate market downturn, ironically, may also be a factor, as developers look to differentiate their offerings and target more affluent buyers. View our spa real estate photo gallery.

6) Taking Sleep Seriously … Especially if you Want to Lose Weight -
Last year SpaFinder predicted that more and more spas would recognize sleep as an important pillar of health and step up their efforts to encourage healthy sleep for guests. What started as an awareness has now become a focus, as evidenced by the "sleeping room only" sleep-health workshops given at Rancho La Puerta and Red Mountain spas by Sleep Guru Robert deStephano. With recent medical studies highlighting the importance of sleep for everything from improved productivity at work to cardiovascular health, SpaFinder forecasts that sleep will be taken even more seriously in the year ahead. Tipping the scales (so to speak) will be an emphasis on recent research revealing that healthy sleep is necessary for weight loss.

Look for more hotel spas to bring in sleep directors, more destination spas to offer sleep programs (including medically guided sleep analysis), and more day spas to offer "snoozing zones" and creative massage scheduling that allows therapists to say, "stay on the table for as long as you like." After all, 72% of spa-goers report having fallen asleep during a treatment, and roughly two out of three want their spa to provide a place where they can sleep. Across the board, stay spas will continue to promote good sleep among guests with offerings like ultra-comfortable cotton bedding, white noise CDs, sleep yoga, and sleep hygiene education sessions.

The shape of things to come: the Yelo Sleep Cab in Manhattan, which offers high-tech sleep chambers designed to induce rejuvenating power naps within minutes. In fact, Yelo is opening two new locations in 2008.

7) Fertility Tranquility -
Having waited to begin starting a family, many couples are finding that getting pregnant isn't all that easy. Because stress is often the culprit, hopeful parents-to-be are going to spas in search of tranquility (and a romantic environment). Spas, moreover, are beginning to offer treatments and diet regimes designed to boost fertility. Examples include the Program for Infertility at The Raj Ayurvedic Spa in Iowa, the Ritual de Fertilidad at the Tides Riviera Maya (where an ancient fertility ritual is simulated in their special "Maya House of Fertility" treatment room), the Lunaception Treatment at the Qua Spa at Caesar's Palace, and Fertility Reflexology and Fertility Yoga at The Spa at Little Dix Bay. Fertility-oriented acupuncture is becoming especially popular as a natural alternative for couples worried about the health effects of taking fertility hormones.