Why the first night in a hotel affects your sleep quality and how to improve it
The first night in a new place often results in worse sleep. Experts cite the evolutionary causes and give tips on sleeping better
The first night in a new place is always the same for Robinson Leoni: he takes longer to fall asleep, wakes up more often during the night and gets less sleep overall.
At home he averages seven hours. The first night away – with or without earplugs and regardless of the bed’s quality – his smartwatch tells him he gets about five.
“I feel normal, you know, no stress, nothing, but it’s just I notice I wake up continuously,” Leoni says. He is a sales director for a tech company and travels once or twice a month for work.
He is a victim of what sleep specialists call the first-night effect. The phenomenon has been confirmed by dozens of studies and is believed to have evolutionary roots, says Anna Wick, a senior sleep researcher at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.
“It’s assumed to be an adaptation response that the sleeping brain remains vigilant in this unfamiliar environment,” Wick says.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a Marriott hotel or it’s the savannah. Your brain hasn’t got the memo that this place is completely safe
Ahmad Mayeli, a psychiatry professor and sleep researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, says most people experience it. Even those who may not notice it probably experience it on a small level. On average, people sleep about 20 to 30 minutes less in a new environment.