• Jets Overview
• Hydromassage Benefits
• Arthritis Benefits
• Diabetes Benefits
• Sleep Benefits

Sleepless Nights? Relax in a Spa

A good night's sleep makes us feel refreshed and alert.

On the other hand, miss out on a few night's sleep and chances are you'll feel below par - research shows that your attention, learning and physical performance all suffer. After several night's of getting less sleep than you need, your body builds up a "sleep debt" that you have to "repay" by sleeping longer than usual.

Sleep also helps to:

- keep the heart and blood vessels healthy

- repair the body's tissues and stimulate growth in children

- strengthen the immune system; and

- regulate appetite and weight, and control blood glucose levels

Sleep disorders affect an estimated 240,000 New Zealanders and 1 million Australians although most cases remain undiagnosed and untreated.

Sleep researchers believe that many cases of insomnia can be traced to hectic, stressful lifestyles lived by basically healthy people. The results of sleep deprivation are varied and may cause battered nerves, grogginess, lapses in memory, depression, and erratic mood swings.

Immerse Yourself in Liquid Tranquility

So how can you help your body enter a deep sleep? According to a recent study in the scientific journal Sleep, a drop in body temperature can help to ease your body into a deeper, more relaxing sleep. Therefore it is suggested that you soak in very hot water (103° F) approximately 90 minutes before bedtime. This causes the body's internal thermostat to pull your temperature down, enabling sleep to set in with more ease. An ideal way to achieve this is to take a 15-minute soak in a spa.

This therapeutic use of warm water is called hydromassage. The beauty of a spa-induced sleep is that it is a natural remedy, unlike alternative sleeping aids such as prescription drugs, over-the-counter remedies and alcohol-all of which can make you feel groggy and have other adverse side effects.