Adequate sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining your guest’s physical and mental health. The repercussions of insufficient sleep become apparent quite swiftly – a lack of energy, daytime drowsiness, reduced concentration, and even shifts in mood. Hannah Shore, Sleep Research Manager at Silentnight, outlines five key strategies which you could encourage in your guest’s routine during their stay to pave the way for a truly restful night’s sleep.
Sleep is a vital reset mechanism for both your body and mind. Upon waking, quality sleep leaves you rejuvenated, equipping you to confront whatever challenges the day presents. Beyond this, it safeguards your physical wellbeing, preserves mental health equilibrium, and plays a role in avoiding illnesses.
Neglecting adequate sleep adversely impacts cognitive functions, making it harder to focus, reason clearly, and consolidate memories of their stay at your venue. Over prolonged periods, this neglect heightens the risk of certain medical conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
The optimal goal is to attain 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Achieving this target promotes peak functioning, alertness, and overall health. Nevertheless, various factors can disrupt sleep quality, such as stress, medical conditions, lifestyle choices, and disturbances in your sleep environment.
Tackling these factors involves managing stress, adopting positive lifestyle changes, and adhering to a consistent sleep schedule. If your venue establishes the strategies below, you’ll help pave the way to a perfect night’s sleep, in turn, elevating the guest experience at your overnight stay venue.
Maintain a Regular Sleep Schedule
Consistency in sleep timing is pivotal. Aligning your hotel’s operational schedule in line with the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep is a good way to reinforce your guest’s natural sleep-wake cycle, promoting a better quality sleep.
You can do this by reducing noise and dimming lights around the hotel venue after evening dinner service. This will make way for some consistency, which in turn helps prime guests for their sleep cycle. Whilst you can’t dictate to your guests when they should sleep and how long for, making subtle changes to operational routines will help promote sleep, and hopefully align with guests’ own sleeping routines.
Guide Guest’s Diet and Hydration
Your guest’s dietary habits will significantly influence their sleep quality. For guests who are after a better night’s sleep, your food and beverage staff can promote lighter meals and no consumption of alcohol or caffeine before bed. These substances can impair sleep quality and lead to grogginess upon waking. Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns, rendering sleep less rejuvenating, while caffeine acts as a stimulant, hampering sleep initiation.
Regular Exercise
Engaging in regular, moderate exercise not only bolsters your guest’s physical and mental wellbeing but also aids in achieving restorative sleep. When timed appropriately, exercise promotes quicker sleep onset, extends sleep duration, and enhances sleep quality.
Tackling Worries
Confronting worries during the day can prevent their intrusion at bedtime. Offer guests a notepad by their bedside for any late-night epiphanies. Suggest jotting down their thoughts to address them the following day. Proactively managing stress through organisation, prioritisation, and task-sharing can foster a sense of calm and reduce night time anxiety, thus facilitating better sleep.
Relaxing Sleep Sounds
Whether it’s the gentle lull of ocean waves, the pitter-patter of rainfall, or calming white noise, soothing sounds offer a straightforward yet potent method for achieving restful sleep. Purposefully designed sleep sounds contribute to lower blood pressure, a slower heart rate, and diminished anxiety. By cultivating a relaxed mental state, you create a favourable environment for your guest’s perfect night sleep.
