PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — When it comes to our health, sleep is vital. It affects our ability to concentrate and make decisions.

It also affects our mood and stress levels.

Unfortunately, studies show about 33 percent of Americans suffer from sleep deprivation.

Accustomed to caring for others, 43-year-old Carmen Perez is a busy mom and nurse.

After months of struggling to get a good night of sleep, she knew she had to take care of herself, as three to four hours a night is not enough.

“The next morning, I would wake up very tired, lack of energy, and stressed because this was building up and never ending,” said Perez.

She decided to try brain cooling therapy, a new, unique approach developed by Dr. Marc Abreu at South Florida’s Brain Wellness Institute.

“We usually are running on a higher speed all the time and need to cool off and allow the synchronization of function,” said Abreu. “It’s like if you run your car nonstop, the engine is going to burn out.”

That’s exactly how carmen felt, burned out, but that changed after just one 80-minute cooling session.

“The first night, I was able to sleep more hours than before, probably three hours more,” Perez said.

Abreu said this specially designed cooling device targets the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that regulates sleep, hunger, temperature, and mood.

“What we do here to actually create a balance in harmony of the hypothalamus,” said Abreu.

For Perez, the treatment has been a game changer.

“I’m sleeping much better,” she said. “That helped me break the ice. I was able to control the rest myself.”

That rest she speaks of is diet, exercise and other environments factors that affect our sleep.

Doctors stress how important it is to put away your electronic devices an hour before you want to go to sleep.

The cost for eight brain cooling sessions is $1,600.

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