I have a button on my desk which says “Sleep: As Important as Diet and Exercise (Only Easier!)”

It was given to me by Richard Gelula who is the CEO of the National Sleep Foundation in Washington DC. He was in town with a colleague and stopped by to see his niece, Melisse Gelula, who is Luxury SpaFinder Magazine’s famous beauty editor. Since one of the top spa trends we predicted for 2007 was sleep health, I was delighted to spend some time with him. Here are a few things I learned which I thought were interesting:

- There is a National Sleep Awareness Week
- That week is in March and always timed so it coincides with the return to Daylight Saving Time when people lose an hour of sleep.
- Their tag line is “Waking America to the Importance of Sleep”
- They are seeing a huge wave of interest and awareness of the importance of sleep health

And since they left me a copy of their recent 2007 Sleep in America poll which focused on women, I also learned an interesting tidbit about who women are sleeping with.

65% sleep with their significant other, 24% sleep alone, 14% sleep with their pet (this was a surprise to me!), 7% sleep with a child, and 2% sleep with an infant.