You’ve seen it before: Friends and family swing into town for a visit and—bam—they’re walloped by a headache. The next morning they’re so sluggish from a restless night’s sleep that they don’t have the energy to tick off the weekend to-do list. Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) is the ultimate party pooper.

The simple truth is that at 8,150 feet (Vail) and 8,080 feet (Beaver Creek) there’s less oxygen in these parts, and that’s a problem. “When you’re in a thinner oxygen environment, the body compensates by breathing faster and deeper,” explains Dr. Durant Abernethy, who practices internal medicine at High Country Healthcare—at 9,097 feet in Frisco. Breathing faster (think hyperventilating) upsets the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your system and changes the pH of your blood. This leads to headaches, nausea, dizziness, a poor night’s sleep, and even sleep apnea. So, what gives?

“There’s no fix for low oxygen except oxygen,” Abernethy says. But rater than stocking up on those hand-held Boost oxygen canisters or buying an oxygen concentrator, there’s another option: Altitude Control Technology (ACT), an Edwards-based company that installs oxygen-controlled altitude simulation systems into mountain homes. If that sounds like science fiction, hear this: “In the simplest terms, we’re changing the oxygen level in your home,” says Kyle Bassett, ACT’s chief operating officer.

Systems, which are generally installed to regulate the air in the bedrooms, measure barometric pressure every seven seconds and adjust the oxygen levels accordingly. (A drop in barometric pressure leads to less oxygen in the air.) “There is data saying that adding three percent oxygen at altitude gives a good wellness benefit,” Bassett says. “Seventy-five percent of ACT clients do this because of sleep.” One such believer is Greg Brenneman, a part-time resident of Beaver Creek who is the chair of the Baylor College of Medicine Board of Trustees in Waco, Texas. Brenneman didn’t think he was affected by altitude until he spent a couple of nights at a friend’s in Telluride who has oxygen-regulated bedrooms and he was amazed by the quality of his sleep. Brenneman called ACT, looked into the process, and ultimately ended up installing a system. “At night you close the doors to the bedroom to seal the room. You turn on the machine and in two hours you’ve gone from 8,500 feet to 2,000 feet,” he explains. “I’m 61 and I ride my mountain bike a lot. I have more energy during the day and I’ve found it to be a game changer.” 

What does this process entail? Bassett explains that the company evaluates the structure of the house and then custom designs a system, which addresses air leaks and ties into the home’s HVAC. Cost depends on the size of a bedroom, but you’re probably looking at $25,000 to $100,000 per bedroom. For vacation homeowners it’s a luxury product for sure, but for aging permanent residents eying plunging numbers on their Apple watch’s pulse oximeter, the price of staying healthy, and local, might be worth it.