Harvard, Spas, and Sleep
- Published: Monday, March 19th 2007
- in Living Well
Last Friday I had the pleasure of meeting Russell Sanna, Ph.D, who came all the way from Boston to visit us at our Spa Finder offices here in Manhattan. Dr. Sanna, the Executive Director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard, had contacted me after reading the NY Times Article on Sleep, in which I was quoted on the trend of sleep health and spas.
He is genuinely excited about the spa industry’s interest in helping get the word out about the importance of sleep health. It aligns perfectly with their mission and he wants to know how Harvard can help!
One of the slogans he used which I really liked (and wrote down) was “sleep is a private behavior with public consequences.” The more I read, the more truth the phrase seems to hold.
The National Sleep Foundation (Later I learned from our beauty editor for Luxury SpaFinder Magazine, Melisse Gelula, that her Uncle is head of this organization!) estimates that 40 million Americans have a sleep disorder. Other countries have a similar epidemic – especially Japan.
This affects:
Productivity
Safety at work and school
Transportation safety
Health issues like high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, heart failure and diabetes mellitus
Weight gain, overeating and obesity
Shocking examples include the Chernobyl and Exxon Valdez disasters, both of which have been linked to insufficient sleep.
