When It's Miles To Go Before You Sleep

How to get the best rest while you’re on the road

- Sarah Rappaport

When you're tossing and turning in a hotel bed, blame your cavemen ancestors. "It's an evolutionary response," says Rebecca Robbins, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep But Are Too Tired to Ask.

You can be in the most luxurious surroundings possible, Robbins says, but if you don't feel safe, you won't sleep well. "When we are traveling," she says, "our brain is on higher alert than it is in a known environment."

Even relatively minor inconveniences in a room can ruin your 40 winks. A study conducted by Robbins found one of the top attributes contributing to poor sleep in hotels-after uncomfortable bedding and mattresses-was a lack of electrical outlets or phone-charging stations. "If there isn't an outlet near the bed, guests find it stressful," she says.

But having a bad night's sleep on the road isn't inevitable. Both hotels and travelers can take steps to ensure you get your zzz's.

The right kind of pillow can work wonders, for instance. At the Benjamin Royal Sonesta in Midtown Manhattan, Robbins has curated a "pillow menu" arranged by sleeping position.

Back sleepers need one that's less full than what side sleepers need, whereas people who sleep on their stomach need next to nothing. "It's a myth that there's a perfect pillow out there for all of us," she says. There's also a range of anti-snore options and 5-foot-long body pillows that align the spine for better posture, helpful during pregnancy or for those recovering from surgery.