The Tank
The Floatation tank is a fibreglass capsule containing water to a depth of 25cm (10") treated with a very high concentration (700lb) of Epsom salts. The resultant high density allows your body to float naturally and spontaneously without effort. Even your head floats to the centre of buoyancy and the centre of gravity of the head are in about the same place so you can tilt your head back comfortably without fear of sinking.

R.E.S.T.
The floatation tank experience ultimately isolates an individual from external stimuli, enabling them to forget their body and concentrate on their mind. It is based upon a scientific approach to deep relaxation called Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy, or R.E.S.T. A number of researchers and clinicians are working with R.E.S.T. and how the floatation tank affects the mind and body.The floatation tank is soundproof. At nu-age medical spa all our rooms are also sound proof. During floating you wear earplugs and your ears are below the surface of the solution, which cuts out external sounds. Many people find that gentle music, from the underwater speakers in the tank, helps them to relax.

In 1982 the International R.E.S.T. Investigators Society (IRIS) was founded.This brought together clinicians, researchers, floatation centre operators, tank manufacturers, and others involved with floatation to form a body for research, lectures, and shared experience. IRIS organises a R.E.S.T. conference tri-annually and makes information available to all interested.

Gravity
Due to the high salt levels in the water, the floatation tank creates a zero gravity environment. Unless you are an astronaut the floatation tank is the only situation you will encounter where your body is free from gravity. NASA employs floatation to simulate weightlessness. Zero gravity allows you to relax every single muscle, your neck, arms, back and even ears. The tank enables you to find those areas you are holding tense so you can let go. Finding where gravity is and in which direction, then computing how you can move and not fall over, takes about 90% of your brain's activity on a daily basis. When you start to float you are free from all the gravity computations and the physical world, which leaves the brain free to attend to other matters.
One of the major sources of stimulation in humans is the temperature gradient change on the surface of the body. Temperature inside the floatation tank is isothermal over the surface of the body so that the nerve endings covering the surface of the skin no longer perceive a separation between the skin and the solution inside the tank.

Sound
The floatation tank is soundproof. At nu-age medical spa all our rooms are also sound proof. During floating you wear earplugs and your ears are below the surface of the solution, which cuts out external sounds. Many people find that gentle music, from the underwater speakers in the tank, helps them to relax.

Light
Floating in darkness allows areas of the brain which are always in use when awake to be liberated from their work. Tests have shown that there is a drop in electrical activity of the brain and you begin to generate theta brain waves, which are associated with deep relaxation. The darkness during floating also induces a balance between the left and right brain. There is a shift from the normally dominant left side of the brain (logical, analytical and rational) to the right side (intuition, mental clarity and creativity). For the first time both sides of the brain are in harmony and the balance creates allows you to use huge amounts of previously unavailable brainpower.