You may have heard of the importance of getting at least seven hours of sleep every night. Of course you want to get that much rest, but the problem is that you have a hard time sleeping. It’s either you spend hours lying on your bed or you wake up in the wee hours of the morning.
You’ve tried all sorts of sleeping pills but none of them have worked so far. You’ve also resorted to every trick suggested by your friends, from taking a shower before hitting the sack to even playing calming music.
Maybe it’s time to make your room more ideal for sleeping. After all, your bedroom is your refuge from the stresses of everyday life. You should make it more conducive to sleeping, so you will have an easier time falling asleep or maintaining your sleep while you’re in your bedroom.
How do you do that? Here are four things you can do to make your bedroom ideal for sleeping.
- Make It Dark
Your room may not be conducive to sleeping because it is not dark enough. You should realize the light hampers the secretion of melatonin in your body. This is the hormone that naturally promotes sleep.
Dim the lights the moment you’re ready to hit the sack. You should also turn off those bright overhead lamps. If you don’t want to trip over things, you can have a soft lamp at your bedside instead. If you have a television at your room, then place it in another part of the house. You can also hide digital clocks from view.
You can put a night light in your hallway so you would be able to go to the bathroom at 2 in the morning. This is certainly better than turning on a ceiling light which may only disrupt your body’s melatonin secretion.
If there is a streetlight near your room, or the moonlight shines in from the outside, install heavy window shades. Better yet, wear a dark sleep mask.
- Keep It Cool
You can’t expect yourself to sleep early or long enough if you are not comfortable with the temperature in your room. Remember that our body’s temperature levels naturally drop as we drift into sleep. Thus cooling down the bedroom can hasten the process and make it easier for you to doze off.
Experts say that the most ideal bedroom temperature would be one that is at least five degrees lower than the average daytime temperature. Hence if the daytime temperature in your area is 32 degrees Celsius, set the thermostat to at least 27 degrees.
- Keep It Quiet
Do you often hear noise coming from cats, or unwelcome sounds of ambulances, whenever you are in your bedroom? Then you might buffer the noise by placing a thick rug or putting heavy blinds. Or drown out the disruptions by playing soothing music. Maybe putting earplugs to completely muffle the noise would do the trick.
You can also use a CD or music player with a sleep function that would shut down automatically after 30 or 60 minutes, because you don’t want to noise to wake you during shallow sleep cycles.
- Keep Your Area Calm
Your bedroom should only be reserved for two things—sleep and sex. Hence, you must not place things that can distract you from those purposes. This means there should be no stationary bike or treadmill, no computer, or anything that can stress you out. You can add calming color schemes, photos, artwork and personal mementos to make your room more relaxing and thus more conducive to sleeping.
