Sleep is 2020’s New Luxury
The first conversation with my professional sleep coach veered into late-night hot dog consumption around 30 minutes in.
Luckily, I slept fine after July Fourth, I told Dan Daly, who works for Equinox, the up-up-upscale gym chain that recently launched an intensive 12-week program to help its members sleep better. But even on non-holidays, I (and all Americans, I suggested patriotically) sometimes overdo it. How should I handle that situation? Belly full of meat, thrashing around, staring at the ceiling, desperate for sleep?
Daly, a blonde and fit former college swimmer, told me that, sure, evening snacks are often a problem. But, it’s not always that simple. “We want to look for the biggest rock,” he said. That rock could be food or perhaps my sputtering A.C. unit. Either way, “move it, then the path becomes clear.”
“[Sleep] is something that we used to blow off forever,” Dr. Khosla told me. “It kind of is the pillar upon which health and wellness sit. [But] I think it suffers from a lack of urgency.” If you have severe chest pain, you go directly to the ER, she said. But “who goes the ER for snoring? We rationalize it: I’m tired because I work; I’m tired because I work and I have kids; I’m tired because I stay up too late. We don’t [understand] that sleep impacts—pick an organ—sleep will impact it!”
There are plenty of tools available for use to improve your nightly sleep. Pick one that suits you, and then invest in yourself.