Kamalaya’s sleep expert explains why the hours we sleep tell only part of the story
Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary is encouraging a more holistic understanding of sleep and its role in healthy ageing, looking beyond the number of hours spent asleep to the daily rhythms, patterns and emotional wellbeing that can influence the quality of our rest.
Drawing on Kamalaya’s holistic philosophy, the multi-award-winning sanctuary recognises restorative sleep as an essential foundation for long-term health and vitality, alongside nourishing nutrition, movement and emotional balance. This integrated approach also underpins Kamalaya’s dedicated Sleep Enhancement program, which supports guests in understanding and addressing the individual factors that may be influencing their sleep.
Kamalaya’s Sleep Enhancement program combines personalised guidance with restorative therapies to improve sleep quality
According to Anna Löfgren, Naturopath and Wellness Consultant at Kamalaya, focusing on sleep duration alone can overlook important indicators of how restorative our sleep truly is.
“Our biology responds well to rhythm,” says Löfgren. “Duration remains important, but so do regularity, continuity, timing – and, ultimately, how restored and functional we feel during the day. Eight hours tells us the duration of someone’s sleep, it does not necessarily tell us how restorative that sleep has been.”
This understanding is increasingly reflected in sleep research, giving sleep regularity greater attention. A UK Biobank study published in the journal Sleep found that more consistent sleep patterns were associated with lower mortality risk during the follow-up period, with sleep regularity emerging as a stronger predictor than duration alone.
Traditional therapies at Kamalaya encourage relaxation, stress relief and restorative sleep
For Kamalaya, this reinforces the importance of viewing sleep within the wider context of an individual’s health, lifestyle and emotional wellbeing. Alongside allowing sufficient time for rest, Löfgren encourages people to pay attention to how they feel and function throughout the day: whether they can concentrate, sustain energy for their usual activities and remain reasonably alert.
“If you regularly wake feeling unrefreshed, or experience sleepiness during the day despite allowing enough time for sleep, it is worth looking more closely at what may be disrupting your rest,” she says.
Löfgren also encourages a balanced approach to wearable sleep technology. Tracking patterns in bedtime, wake time and regularity can offer useful insights, but nightly scores are most meaningful when considered alongside a person’s own experience of how they sleep and feel.
“Sleep trackers can be useful tools, but they are not diagnostic devices,” she says. “Use the data as a guide and an opportunity to become more aware of your patterns, rather than allowing a score to become more important than how you actually feel.”
To support better sleep, she recommends reasonably consistent sleep and wake times, exposure to natural light in the morning, regular physical activity and dedicated time to wind down in the evening. Managing stress and being mindful of late caffeine, alcohol and heavy evening meals are also important elements of her guidance.
“At Kamalaya, we have always understood that restorative sleep is deeply connected to how we live and how we feel within ourselves,” says Gopal Kumar, General Manager and Group Director of Wellness Development at Kamalaya. “The way we nourish and move our bodies, manage stress and care for our emotional wellbeing all influences our ability to truly rest and renew. Sleep is not simply a pause between one day and the next – it is an essential part of restoring balance across body, mind and heart. Our intention is to help guests reconnect with their natural rhythms, understand what their body is asking for and develop practices that continue to nurture their wellbeing long after they leave Kamalaya.”
Recognising that restorative sleep is influenced by many interconnected factors, Kamalaya’s Sleep Enhancement program takes a holistic and highly personalised approach. Rather than focusing on sleep in isolation, the program explores the physical, mental and emotional influences that may be disrupting an individual’s natural sleep patterns. Personalised wellness guidance is complemented by naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, mind-body practices and carefully selected therapies, creating the supportive conditions for body and mind to deeply rest and renew.
Available for five, eight, 11, 15 or 21 nights, Sleep Enhancement helps guests gain a deeper understanding of what may be affecting their sleep while developing practical tools and healthier patterns that can be carried into everyday life. The program reflects Kamalaya’s wider philosophy that lasting wellbeing is nurtured through balance across body, mind and heart – with restorative sleep providing an essential foundation for vitality, resilience and living fully. A full overview of the program, including its inclusions, treatments and therapies, may be found here.
Kamalaya’s sleep expert explains why the hours we sleep tell only part of the story
Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary is encouraging a more holistic understanding of sleep and its role in healthy ageing, looking beyond the number of hours spent asleep to the daily rhythms, patterns and emotional wellbeing that can influence the quality of our rest.
Drawing on Kamalaya’s holistic philosophy, the multi-award-winning sanctuary recognises restorative sleep as an essential foundation for long-term health and vitality, alongside nourishing nutrition, movement and emotional balance. This integrated approach also underpins Kamalaya’s dedicated Sleep Enhancement program, which supports guests in understanding and addressing the individual factors that may be influencing their sleep.
According to Anna Löfgren, Naturopath and Wellness Consultant at Kamalaya, focusing on sleep duration alone can overlook important indicators of how restorative our sleep truly is.
“Our biology responds well to rhythm,” says Löfgren. “Duration remains important, but so do regularity, continuity, timing – and, ultimately, how restored and functional we feel during the day. Eight hours tells us the duration of someone’s sleep, it does not necessarily tell us how restorative that sleep has been.”
This understanding is increasingly reflected in sleep research, giving sleep regularity greater attention. A UK Biobank study published in the journal Sleep found that more consistent sleep patterns were associated with lower mortality risk during the follow-up period, with sleep regularity emerging as a stronger predictor than duration alone.
For Kamalaya, this reinforces the importance of viewing sleep within the wider context of an individual’s health, lifestyle and emotional wellbeing. Alongside allowing sufficient time for rest, Löfgren encourages people to pay attention to how they feel and function throughout the day: whether they can concentrate, sustain energy for their usual activities and remain reasonably alert.
“If you regularly wake feeling unrefreshed, or experience sleepiness during the day despite allowing enough time for sleep, it is worth looking more closely at what may be disrupting your rest,” she says.
Löfgren also encourages a balanced approach to wearable sleep technology. Tracking patterns in bedtime, wake time and regularity can offer useful insights, but nightly scores are most meaningful when considered alongside a person’s own experience of how they sleep and feel.
“Sleep trackers can be useful tools, but they are not diagnostic devices,” she says. “Use the data as a guide and an opportunity to become more aware of your patterns, rather than allowing a score to become more important than how you actually feel.”
To support better sleep, she recommends reasonably consistent sleep and wake times, exposure to natural light in the morning, regular physical activity and dedicated time to wind down in the evening. Managing stress and being mindful of late caffeine, alcohol and heavy evening meals are also important elements of her guidance.
“At Kamalaya, we have always understood that restorative sleep is deeply connected to how we live and how we feel within ourselves,” says Gopal Kumar, General Manager and Group Director of Wellness Development at Kamalaya. “The way we nourish and move our bodies, manage stress and care for our emotional wellbeing all influences our ability to truly rest and renew. Sleep is not simply a pause between one day and the next – it is an essential part of restoring balance across body, mind and heart. Our intention is to help guests reconnect with their natural rhythms, understand what their body is asking for and develop practices that continue to nurture their wellbeing long after they leave Kamalaya.”
Recognising that restorative sleep is influenced by many interconnected factors, Kamalaya’s Sleep Enhancement program takes a holistic and highly personalised approach. Rather than focusing on sleep in isolation, the program explores the physical, mental and emotional influences that may be disrupting an individual’s natural sleep patterns. Personalised wellness guidance is complemented by naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, mind-body practices and carefully selected therapies, creating the supportive conditions for body and mind to deeply rest and renew.
Available for five, eight, 11, 15 or 21 nights, Sleep Enhancement helps guests gain a deeper understanding of what may be affecting their sleep while developing practical tools and healthier patterns that can be carried into everyday life. The program reflects Kamalaya’s wider philosophy that lasting wellbeing is nurtured through balance across body, mind and heart – with restorative sleep providing an essential foundation for vitality, resilience and living fully. A full overview of the program, including its inclusions, treatments and therapies, may be found here.
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