The fine art of sleeping

STUFF OF DREAMS: Having trouble getting a bit of shut-eye? How about a 'sleep discovery retreat', for coaching on how to get to sleep and stay that way.

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During a week of coaching, Kay O'Sullivan learns how to sleep like a baby.

The perfect book to take on a sleep retreat must be The Lost Art of Sleep by Australian author Michael McGirr. That's in no way a suggestion that McGirr's tender memoir will bore you to snores.

It's as entertaining as it is informative but the conclusion is inescapable: there is no single answer as to why some people sleep and others do not.

I'm at Gwinganna's four-day Sleep Discovery Retreat where general manager Sharon Kolkka tells me sleeplessness is a growing problem in our stressed world.

Gwinganna is a lifestyle retreat that can accommodate 60 people and the sleep program has attracted 54, which is telling. I had, mistakenly as it turns out, assumed my fellow guests would be like me, women of a ... certain age. Women do dominate (there are only six blokes) but all ages are represented, even a couple of teenagers.

The first discovery is that lolling around in bed after the sun has come up is not the way to build good sleeping habits.

The sleep program follows the structure of all of Gwinganna's 10 programs, which range from weekend breaks to a seven-day detox. Everyone is encouraged to rise early and then it's go, go, go until the lifestyle seminar at 11am.

On the sleep program we hear from the resident doctor, who talks on the science of sleep; a nutritionist, who explains the role of food; a naturopath, who offers solutions for sleep; and Kolkka, who wraps it up from her perspective of 25 years in the health and wellness industry.

Lunch is at 1pm and the afternoon is given over to what is called Dreamtime. Kolkka, who left the nearby Golden Door health retreat to start Gwinganna, decided to call a halt to all-day exercise programs popular at other retreats and turn the afternoons over to rest. Her reasoning is that we need rest as much as we need activity for optimal health. Amen to that, I say.

We are told we can do what we like – read a book, take a nap, although preferably no longer than 20 minutes, sit and stare at the views over the Gold Coast hinterland or try one of the scores of treatments at the new 33-room spa. No prizes for guessing what most of us do.

I might not have done as much research as McGirr on the subject of sleeplessness but even before going to Gwinganna I was not entirely clueless – that's the upside of waking at 3am, plenty of time to read – but I still learn lots from the seminars and I'm reminded of heaps I had forgotten, including the fact that good sleep is essential for memory.

Here's a summary: the adage that everything is better after a good night's sleep is founded in physiological truth. It helps to stop thinking of yourself as a bad sleeper and it pays to look upon waking early as a gift.

Bedtime rituals help. It's a good idea for every aspect of your life, not just your sleeping pattern, to turn off the computer a couple of hours before the ideal bedtime of 10pm. Television in the bedroom is not a bright idea and, for that matter, get rid of anything bright, even a glow-in-the-dark clock.

Herbs will help hormone-related sleeplessness. Meditation will help everyone. Naps are fine as long as they are limited to 20 minutes and taken early rather than later in the afternoon. And don't exercise or eat late at night.

There is a lot to digest but it is presented in palatable, often amusing chunks. Which brings me to digestion. You wouldn't believe how much digestion has to do with sleeping.

We all know the saying "we are what we eat" but I now know that when I eat and how I eat also helps determine how I sleep.

Each of the speakers at Gwinganna confirms McGirr's conclusion that there is no single answer to good sleep. The trick is to find what works for you. It seems a lot of people on the program find what works for them.

One woman, who had not slept without medication for years, survives one night without her pills. Another woman, who had not slept through the night since the birth of her second child three years previously, manages a full eight hours.

Others, like me, are confident that lack of sleep is no longer going to be such an overwhelming issue.

But it's easy to feel fantastic at Gwinganna. That's what its founder, Tony de Leede, the force behind the Fitness First chain of gyms, set out to create. Life seems sweet and sleep seems relatively easy when you are sitting on top of a mountain surrounded by nature, breathing fresh air, exercising for three hours a day, eating organic meals and having your bed made.

The real test is when real life intrudes, so here I am, more than six weeks later – the time I was told it takes for habits to form – and I have to tell you, apart from that night after a double-shot latte in the afternoon and an extra glass of wine with dinner, I seem to have rediscovered an art I thought lost forever to women of a ... certain age.

Kay O'Sullivan stayed courtesy of Gwinganna.

For more information, see gwinganna.com.

- © Fairfax NZ News