Swede dreams: How Sweden is embracing its sleepy side

Sweden's long, cold nights might put you off going there in winter, unless, that is, you are in search of that elusive 21st-Century luxury: a good night's sleep.

The ferry cuts through the icy Baltic waters as it makes its way around the eastern Swedish archipelago. Place names like Skarpö, Hjälmö and Gällnö are painted on rust-red huts lining the jetties. The suffix "Ö" means island in Swedish, a pictorial representation of a land mass surrounded by sea with two tiny people about to dock.

I am the only person to disembark at Svartsö, one of the few islands in the archipelago where accommodation remains open in winter. I make my way along a snowy track to Skärgårdshotell where I am shown to a cabin on the edge of a forest overlooking the dark expanse of Lake Svartsöfladen. It feels about as far away from it all as you can get.

My room is Swedish simplicity at its most minimal: a bed, a chair and a bedside table. No television, and not much else to distract me from the pristine tranquillity of my surroundings. This is just as well as I am here, primarily, to sleep.

In an age of relentless connectivity, sleep has become the ultimate luxury and spawned a new travel trend: sleep tourism, where sleep-deprived travellers are choosing their hotel on the basis of its pillow menu or booking themselves into away-from-it-all sleep retreats with tailored sleep-inducing activities.

Sweden has a different, more natural approach to sleep tourism, however, taking its cue from the landscape and a more traditional way of life. Often associated with bustling, connected cities like Stockholm and Gothenberg, come winter Sweden embraces its sleepy side and is inviting visitors to do the same.

"The abundance of accessible nature and large areas of peaceful wilderness, combined with dark nights, cool temperatures and a cultural emphasis on relaxation, makes Sweden an ideal location for sleep tourism," explains Christian Benedict, a sleep researcher at Sweden's Uppsala University. "Studies have shown that technology and the way it impinges on our lives has a significant effect on our sleep, and spending more time in nature is tied to better mental health and fewer sleepless nights."

When I decided to try it for myself, I chose the Stockholm archipelago, a nature-lovers paradise with more than 30,000 islands, many of them uninhabited. Svartsö is one of the larger isles but has only around 65 year-round residents. A two-hour ferry ride from Stockholm, in summer it's a popular getaway, luring weekenders and holiday makers with summerhouses, a clutch of restaurants and abundance of nature in which to walk, swim, cycle and kayak.

In the winter months, the Skärgårdshotell is the only accommodation open and its cosy forest cabins, set away from the main building in their own peaceful wooded area, offer the type of peace and quiet that I am after, while not leaving me completely alone in the wilderness.  

I am a city dweller with a restless mind. I often wake several times a night and rise early feeling the need to tackle the long list of things that have kept me awake. Here, on the island in winter, there is little for me to do except hike, read and observe the rhythms of the day in a way I can't when surrounded by the bright lights of a city.

Svartsö literally means "the black island", referring to the dark granite bedrock, though in winter the name could simply refer to the dark skies that are completely free of city glare. Darkness, long viewed as a metaphor for fear and depression, is embraced in these Nordic regions. Further north in the Arctic Circle, where the polar night blankets the land in darkness for months, far from staying indoors, inhabitants strap on headlamps and explore snowy trails.

So I do the same, setting out at dusk past fields of sheep, pigs and goats. I head along the edge of the forest and wander down to the seashore, watching as the sun drops into the water and listening as the noisy drilling of a woodpecker stops, almost as if a switch has been flicked. The surrounding forest falls quiet as the Earth settles down for its own good night's sleep beneath a heavy blanket of snow.

I find the hotel sauna discreetly tucked between the trees and end the day in classic Scandinavian style, sweating out all the worries that might keep me awake followed by a plunge in the bracing sea.

After a simple dinner of stångkorv (Swedish sausage and kale), I sit by the fire and get talking to a group of kayakers who have paddled here from Stockholm. "Traditionally, in the darker months, fire was important for warmth and light but also as part of the evening ritual," a woman named Marie tells me. "After dinner people would cosy up around the fire and allow the flicker of flames to sooth away all the stresses of a day's work."

It works for me. In fact, I find it so soporific that by 20:00 I am ready to retire to my cabin where I hunker down under a duvet and cosy woollen blanket and sleep for an unheard-of 10 hours, waking refreshed to see a sliver of moon above the trees outside.

It's easy to think of sleep deprivation as a very 21st-Century problem, but the Swedish legend of the Mara shows that it's as old as the forest. A strange mythical being that was said to torture people in their sleep, causing fear and tight anxiety-ridden chests, Mara gave rise to the word "nightmare". But in modern times, technological distractions have replaced mythical creatures as more and more people struggle to get to sleep.

"Sweden is one of Europe's most digitalised societies and were early adopters of digitalisation," explains Thérèse Cedercreutz, chief commercial officer for Sweden's Scandic Hotels Group. "Our interest in sleep, and especially the lack of it, can be traced to this and an increased awareness of its impact on our health, which we have set out to counteract with a range of measures. We have blackout rooms, sleep-inducing playlists and wellness areas where mobile phones are banned. If our customers don't sleep, our business as well as their health suffers."

More like this:

• Eight of the world's most extraordinary tiny hotel rooms

• Sweden's wild, animal-free safari

•  The new travel retreats addressing depression and grief

Around the globe, other, both urban and remote hotels are taking things several steps further.

London's Cadogan Hotel has its own Sleep Concierge service , developed in association with hypnotherapist and sleep expert Malminder Gill, who provides a programme of guided sleep meditation. Mandarin Oriental Geneva has a three-day package, run with a private sleep clinic, that involves studying guests' sleeping patterns and creating individual sleep programmes. In Thailand, amidst the tropical greenery on the Royal Coast, the Civa-Som Hua Hin resort's resident naturopath will guide you through everything from diet to hormones that may be affecting circadian rhythms. Meanwhile, the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort uses electromagnetic and infrared technologies to get guests to sleep.

"Our clients were coming to us saying they felt generally depleted, and this often seemed to be down to lack of sleep," says Stella Photi, founder of holiday company Wellbeing Escapes. "We try to incorporate elements of the local cultures into our sleep programmes. In Buddhist countries such as Thailand or Sri Lanka we offer mediation and mindfulness. In India, Ayurvedic treatments use locally sourced herbs; and in Italy, guided walks through vineyards are part of a sleep-promoting programme of activities."

In Sweden, however, it is the experience of being in nature that forms the bedrock of sleep tourism. "Nature's motto is keep it simple," says Jennie Walker, founder of Walkers Naturturer, a nature-guiding business in Sweden's West Coast Archipelago. "In winter, on the barren outcrops that characterise the Gothenburg Archipelago, there is little vegetation, and the birch and pine trees turn away from the strong west winds. A walk over the boulder fields on a winter's day, perhaps coming across a sunbathing harbor seal on one of the skerries, is the perfect preparation for a good night's rest."

And where traditional sleep retreats focus on unwinding before bedtime, in Sweden the focus on sleep begins at dawn with the possibility of pursuing sleep-inducing activities such as hiking, kayaking and forest bathing. 

So, after my mammoth night's sleep, I fuel up with a breakfast of muesli, yoghurt, lingonberry jam and cinnamon buns to hike the Svartsö section of the Stockholm Archipelago Trail. This unique 270km long-distance path traverses 20 islands, from Arholma in the north to Landsort in the south.

On Svartsö, the 18km trail takes me around the island, past a large freshwater lake and through the thick snow-carpeted pine forest where I spot the odd red squirrel, follow deer tracks and step over a tree felled by a beaver's gnawing. The whole day is like an extended forest bathing experience, and by the time I head back to my cabin there is little for me to worry about beyond dinner, sitting by the fire and sleeping well – or "sov gott" as they say in the land of sleep.

And I did. It seems that, for me, gentle exercise in peaceful surroundings with few distractions and taking my cue for bed from nature, provides the perfect Circadian reset.

"Sleep retreats are not just helping people sleep when they are on holiday," says Photi, "The objective is to allow for a relaxing, holistic and personal approach that will set you up with new sleep, and waking habits, with the aim of bringing about long-lasting change." 

I'll sleep on that.

--

If you liked this story, sign up for The Essential List newsletter – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. 

For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.