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At the top of 2025, countless travel media sites pointed to “sleep tourism” as one of the year’s biggest hospitality trends, and it should be. Sleep tourism refers to travel centered on achieving good sleep and restorative rest. Consistently sleeping well is instrumental to a better quality of life. It strengthens our immune system; helps regulate blood pressure and our metabolism; and reduces inflammation. Our mood and cognitive function are better when we’re well-rested. Very few things can help you feel more grounded than a couple nights of restful sleep, which is why hotels are optimizing their rooms and guest stays around it. According to the CDC, approximately 35% of Americans do not get sufficient sleep.
Thus, hotels are leveraging partnerships, creating packages and finding various ways to optimize their accommodations for guests to check-in simply to get some shut eye. Coming to prominence in 2024, this is the second year travelers centered rest. Per Hilton’s 2025 trend report, 70% of luxury travelers chose properties with sleep amenities. We visited Equinox Hotel’s newest snooze offering and stayed in one of their four Sleep Lab rooms. Here’s how they stack up against the competition and what was great about the visit.
We like
- The sleep amenities weren’t disruptive to sleep.
- The in-room steam room/shower is an impressive and uncommon amenity.
- The details are so thoughtful and varied, any type of sleeper could have a restful night.
We don't like
- The gym and pool were not relaxing like the rest of the hotel and spa.
- Having guidance on the tech-enabled sleep settings is essential.
- A lot of the Sleep Menu was an additional fee on top of an already pricey room.
What Sleep Tourism Actually Looks Like
Hotels with special sleep accommodations are approaching the trend in a variety of ways. Some pretty entry level, simply repackaging offerings they already have – highlighting the bed, deluxe pillows, blackout curtains and relaxing “wellness” massage. Others, however, take it to the next level.
In New York, The Royal Sonesta Benjamin offers a 10-choice pillow menu, a meditation pillow, Loftie alarm clock and night light, and Nodpod weighted blanket. They focus on partnerships and the products are available for purchase.
The Carillion Miami offers a multi-night sleep retreat that focuses more on amenities like sleep centered spa treatments and services, access to their gym and fitness classes, a book about sleep and a journal. Within the room, guests will sleep on a Bryte Balance smart bed, which allows for individual firmness control, sleep insights and a silent wake up mechanism.
Synonymous with the Equinox brand, Equinox Hotel’s latest Sleep Lab rooms perfect non-intrusive tech-enabled and analog sleep support. The property, of course, has their gym and a spa with rest-inducing treatments, cryotherapy to quantum harmonics brain and body boost service, but the room is unparalleled. While other properties may lend for a more restful stay, Equinox’s room itself brings sleep optimization to a new level.
Can Sleep Really Be Optimized? The Answer Is Yes.
The two most important parts about a restorative evening of rest are falling asleep and staying asleep. Disruptions should be non-existent, so how can a room truly be optimized for a better sleep? The answer is that there is a process to unwinding from the day and conditions to aid in both parts, and the Sleep Lab even lends for a gentle close to your night of sleep – waking up!
A smart bed doesn’t exactly sound like it’ll lead to rest, but the Sleep Lab’s is not only made of natural fibers like coconut fiber, seaweed, and horse hair, the adaptive technology is silent and invisible. Temp controls allow sleepers to set their own science-backed, gender specific temperature settings, with women’s being around two degrees warmer than men’s. I don’t tend to like to sleep cold, but I went with the suggested settings and it was the first time I felt like someone knew better about what I needed for my body than me. It was excellent.
I also leveraged the other amenities and in-room tech. Bedside, there was a PM + AM rituals menu highlighting everything available. The bed allows for preset bedtime and wake up, with temps cooling as it gets closer to lights out, lights dimming and becoming warmer, black out shades dropping. The opposite happens slowly before wakeup, and it’s soundless. A subtle vibration awakens sleepers after the room temperature rises and the blackout shades come up. Each has a 30 minute window.
Within the bathroom, the shower triples for a full contrast therapy as steam room and ice bath-temp rain shower, a la ice bucket challenge. It’s just a quick splash in addition to a dual head shower. There are AM/PM body wash scented with chamomile for unwind time and lime for wake up. Scents also carry into the made-for-Equinox essential oil for the steam room and the salt scrub.
They have soundscapes that are allegedly based in neuroscience and music psychology to coincide with waking up in the morning and powering down in the evening as well as circadian mediation, which is a virtually guided breathwork exercise with supporting colors from the screen.
Lastly, they offer the basics with a twist – a sleep travel kit with an eye mask, magnesium sleep patch, proprietary Equinox Hotels sleep tea. This comes alongside some of the offerings in all of their rooms, a yoga mat and blocks, foam roller and a drawer full of fun sex brands.
In Conclusion…
To start my evening dedicated to unwinding and rest, I used the foam roller on my hips, back and shoulders. As I let the steam room heat up, I set my bedtime and wake up leaving ample time for more powering down. I utilized the essential oil and spent 20 minutes in the steam room before showering. I didn’t use the contrast therapy icy splash from the shower because I didn’t want it to wake me up. After my skincare routine and before the 30 minute bedtime window initiated, I set up a circadian color meditation and laid on top of the covers in my bathrobe without my phone. By the time it was complete, I was already into the 30 minute window. The lights softened, I got under the covers and the bed temperature lowered – all without me having to do anything. Eventually the blackout shades dropped. My body felt so relaxed. It was as if I took a CBD gummy. (Although there were things available in the room, I didn’t take any additional sleep aids.) I slept soundly on my back throughout the night and woke up fairly gently for the Hudson Yards Manhattan location.
I loved the automation for bedtime and wake up and that both gradual. Ideally, a sleepcation affords travelers two key components – a restful and relaxing stay and new rituals and routines to support better sleep at home or anywhere else in the world. If it’s in the budget, I highly recommend taking a sleepcation and trying to employ the new rituals into your everyday life.
