The treatment: Float therapy
The promise: The ultimate in deep relaxation, based on a therapy called Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) that limits external stress factors or stimuli. Top athletes, including Wayne Rooney and Tom Brady, have their own home float tanks to help with muscle recovery, de-stressing and visualisation. The therapy is also said to increase endorphin levels and theta wave brain activity and to leave floaters feeling tranquil, relaxed and uplifted. Claimed to be like getting 8 hours rest in a hour.
The practice: My buoyant soak takes place in thrice-filtered water heated to skin temperature and laden with Epsom salts [magnesium sulphate]. After a thorough briefing, I shower and slip into the oval-shaped pod in a spotless private room. The water reaches just below my bust-line and sends my feet floating, so I stretch out and starfish to touch the sides. It's like being alone in a queen-sized water bed under a domed roof. I quickly get restless and alternate floating while wearing an aircraft-style inflatable headrest or lying on my back. Spa music plinks and a rainbow of lights cycle. I think this could be a long hour.
While using the time to work out player positions in my head for the netball team I coach, I realise the lights and music have, as promised, started to fade. Before I know it, I’m drifting off as well. From time-to-time, I nudge the end of the pod, reposition myself slightly and then slip back into a state of twilight consciousness. It takes the progressive return of the plinking and lights to pull me out of the dark silence that I’m surprised to have so easily succumbed to.
The place: White Beauty Spa, 182 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay. Ph (09) 376 9969.
The price: $120 for an hour-long float (allow 90 minutes in total), with a special introductory deal of $149 for 2 sessions.
The verdict: Cheaper than a visit to the Dead Sea. This experience in suspended animation met my would-do-again test. It didn't feel claustrophobic and was relaxing. I felt clear-headed and slept like a log afterwards. If I was a zillionaire sports star, an escape pod at home would be tempting.
