Bal Harbour

Secrets of a Sound Sleep • Set a regime. Go to bed and rise at the same time every day. • Bright light and activity during the day; dim light and less activity at night. Put away lighted devices two hours before bedtime. • Use glasses that block blue light when using the computer or other devices. • Try f.lux software, which changes your computer display to match indoor lighting. • Wear an eye mask to block out ambient light at night. • Make your bedroom as dark as possible. • Finish eating three hours before bedtime. • Eat breakfast. • Limit liquids after dinner. • Avoid a high-fat diet, which induces daytime sleepiness and creates a greater risk of apnea. • Check with your doctor to make sure your medications do not interrupt sleep. • Lose weight, which can restrict airways. • Exercise during the day. • Meditate for relaxation. • Do yoga to improve your breathing and stretching of muscles. • Take a nap, 10–20 minutes improves alertness; 45–60 minutes provides a five-fold improvement in recall of newly-learned material; 90 minutes improves recall and performance on a new task. MADAME X SCANDALIZED PARISIAN society when John Singer Sargent painted her all but slipping out of her form-fitting gown. The 19th-century American beauty survived the infamy of the lascivious portrait, only to be laid low years later by the cruelest gossip an aging beauty can overhear: She had begun to look tired. Such slander may be avoidable today with myriad methods available to combat fatigue and ensure we get optimum sleep. The Canyon Ranch wellness resort, with locations in Arizona and the Berkshires, offers a variety of solutions for the sleep deprived. Its unique sleep study program has a medical department that enables guests to know within hours the scientific reasons why they feel tired all the time. In the real world, it often takes up to six months to book a test and get the results. Canyon Ranch began studying the links between sleep and well-being some two decades ago. In August, my editor asked me to check in for a sleep test at the spa in Lenox, Massachusetts. What I found is that sleep is a seductive science. Not only did the subject merit the Nobel Prize in Medicine last year, but a better night's sleep can improve your sex life and may save your marriage. "Sleep is sexy," says Canyon Ranch medical director Dr. Cindy Geyer, an expert in sleep deprivation. But, she adds, laughing, "The treatments for sleep are not sexy." Dr. Geyer, who heads the medical department at the Lenox spa has a special fondness for the sleep test, having overcome her own sleep issues. Today she wards off snoring with a mandibular advancement device that slightly moves the lower jaw forward to better open the airways in the nose and throat. During my stay, Dr. Geyer oversaw my sleep study and gave a lecture titled "Secrets to Sleeping Soundly" in which she explained that sleep repairs injuries and restores energy. It's also the time when the brain takes out the garbage, scrubbing waste from the central nervous system. Unfortunately more than a third of Americans sleep less than seven hours a night and roughly half snore. In the past 30 days, 38 percent of Americans unintentionally fell asleep at least once and five percent fell asleep at the wheel. Loss of sleep costs the U.S. economy as much as $411 billion annually in absenteeism and accidents. Equally unsettling are the hidden health costs of sleep deprivation, often brought on by sleep apnea, which happens when the body stops breathing, sometimes for minutes at a time. Potential side effects include: high blood pressure, heart attack/stroke, diabetes, anxiety and depression, attention deficit disorder, pain, cognitive decline and structural changes to the brain. Lack of sleep can also make you fat. "The sleepy brain is the hungry brain, 'give me sugar; give me fat,'" says Dr. Param Dedhia, the director of sleep medicine at Canyon Ranch's Tucson spa, who is board certified in internal medicine, sleep medicine and obesity medicine. Stressing the connection between sleep deprivation and weight gain, Dr. Dedhia helped relaunch the Weight Loss Program at the spa, which provides more than the typical offerings of facials, mani-pedis and massages. There are a host of activities from astrology to zipline adventures. "It's like a camp for big kids," he says. At 9 PM, I checked into the medical facility located in the Bellefontaine Mansion, a gilded age stone "cottage" that resembles Petit Trianon at Versailles. Respiratory therapist Donald McDonough prepared me for the full bells-and-whistles Polysomnogram study, attaching 16 electrodes to my head and body. Then he strapped on two chest belts and a nose cannula. The various wires and tubes were in place to record my brain waves, oxygen levels in my blood, heart rate and breathing, and monitor whether I opened my eyes or suddenly jerked my legs while sleeping. I was asleep within 12 minutes, despite being tethered to the side of the bed by a machine that sent multiple electronic messages to McDonough, who monitored my sleep in the next room. McDonough woke me from a sound sleep at 1:34 AM to say I had experienced apnea while turning onto my back just as I started REM sleep, the deepest of the four sleep stages. In an effort to provide optimum airflow, McDonough hooked me up to a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine which forces air through a tube hooked up to a nose-shaped mask and requires patients to breathe through the nose. While far from providing the most restful night's sleep, the test served as a clarion warning: Take preventative measures now to forestall future sleep issues. The first step, according to Dr. Geyer, is to meet with an ear nose and throat specialist, preferably one with a background in sleep medicine. While CPAP is considered the gold standard treatment, more immediate steps to take include wearing Breathe Right strips to open the nasal passages and a backpack or fanny pack to avoid sleeping on my back. (Commercial devices such as SlumberBUMP are also available.) A nasal rinse with saline or alkalol might also help, as would practicing yoga and breathing exercises. I can only wonder how Madame X would have coped had Canyon Ranch been around in her day. Born in New Orleans as Virginie Avegno and later married to a French banker, Madame X became a recluse after hearing the biting gossip about her tired appearance. She immediately cut short her vacation in Cannes and fled in a closed carriage to her hotel, boarded a darkened train compartment and retreated to Paris, where she hid away in mirrorless rooms, venturing out only for midnight walks. BAL HARBOUR 117

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