It is a well-known fact that the quality of the sleep we get directly affects the quality of our waking lives. Performance in school, productivity at work, attentiveness, mood, and much more are all adversely affected when we don’t get enough high-quality sleep.
How Your Bedroom Affects Your Sleep
Every element of your bedroom, from the colors on the walls to the temperature, can affect your sleep quality. Studies show that a bedroom that is optimized promotes better sleep and greatly benefits many aspects of your health. The following tips can help you transform your bedroom and create a space much more conducive to getting a good night’s sleep.
6 Bedroom Hacks for a Better Sleep
Eliminate Clutter
It’s a good idea to start with the old advice you’ve likely been hearing since you were a young child: keep it clean! Even if you are not consciously aware of it, clutter causes stress and anxiety, which are two of the enemies of restorative sleep. Do your best to keep surfaces clear of any unnecessary items and sweep or vacuum regularly.
Choose Colors Wisely
The colors you choose for your bedclothes, walls, and decorative accents affect sleep as well. Based on sleep studies, the best choices seem to be calming, cool tones like blue and green. Earth tones and neutrals are also good options, but you’ll want to avoid red whenever possible.
Red tends to invigorate the senses and stimulate the nervous system, keeping you alert. That is why warnings and sales tend to be displayed in red and why it’s not a good choice for your bedroom.
Keep Light and Noise to a Minimum
Our bodies and brains are hardwired to feel sleepier in the quiet and darkness. When a light comes on, it signals a new day to our central nervous system, which starts the process of waking up and stimulating your heart rate and sensory-motor activity.
Keep outside light from coming in with blackout curtains, and get out of the habit of falling asleep with a bedside lamp or reading light on. The light from the screens of your electronics, such as TVs, computers, and phones, disrupts your brainwave frequency and wreaks havoc on your REM cycles and circadian rhythms. These devices should not be kept in the bedroom. At the very least, turn off all electronics half an hour or more before you go to sleep.
If you share your bed with a partner, it can be very helpful to have carpet or rugs around the bed, to keep their footsteps from waking you if they need to get up in the middle of the night.
Choose the Best Mattress and Bedding You Can Get
We spend about a third of our lives in bed. That’s much more time than we spend at school, at work, or any other single location. Unfortunately, however, most people do not invest a great deal of time or effort into selecting a good mattress.
Many people use worn-out or second-hand mattresses that are ill-suited to their personal preferences. If you spent a third of your life wearing the same shoes, for example, you would certainly be sure to get a good pair!
Consider the Air
The quality, smell, and temperature of the air in your bedroom all directly impact your quality of sleep as well. An air purifier can remove any unpleasant odors and have the additional benefit of reducing the symptoms of many allergies, asthma, and certain sleep disorders.
Our body temperature drops while we sleep, and a lower temperature will make us feel sleepy. So ideally, you want to set your bedroom temperature to the optimal range suited for rest at night, which is somewhere between 60-72 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make Your Bedroom a Place of Peace
If at all possible, do not work or work out in your bedroom. The last thing you want to do is to make associations with stress, unfinished projects, and invigorating activities (with the exception of sex) in the area you want to feel relaxed. What are the last things you see before turning out the lights? Piles of dirty laundry and the laptop you use for work, or clean, open spaces and comforting wall art?
See also: Why Do You Need a Good Night’s Sleep?
Don’t Let Your Sleep Disorder Go Untreated
If you have trouble sleeping, or if you are often tired and drained during the daytime, you may have a sleep disorder. Don’t spend another night tossing and turning or waking up frequently. Contact SleepWell Louisiana to take a sleep assessment, get a consultation, or be fitted for a sleep apnea dental device in Lafayette, LA, and get the good night’s sleep you deserve!
Sources: