Your sleeping space can be the deciding factor in whether you sleep soundly or remain awake, and it’s quite simple to arrange it to ensure a good night’s sleep.
Light, as well as sound and temperature, can be key in maintaining a healthy circadian cycle. To put it briefly, the following factors are crucial:
1. Light:
Of all conditions, light is the most important factor in your sleeping environment. Bright light can be disruptive to our internal clock, thus postponing melatonin production, which signals the body that it’s time to fall asleep.
When it’s time for bed, the room should be sufficiently dark. A good way to achieve this is by unplugging and putting all gadgets away, if possible a few hours before bedtime, and then hanging up black-out blinds to shield the room from natural light. Screentime can be greatly reduced by using filters or even a sleep mask to block blue light that is damaging our internal clock.
2. Noise:
Various sounds can worsen sleeping disorders, such as a newspaper carrier tossing newspapers at an unreasonable hour, the traffic at dawn, and dogs barking through the night. These noises could prevent you from getting the much-needed sleep your body so rightfully deserves.
Whatever method you are using to sleep through the night, be it white noise, listening to turning music, or even silence for that matter, the sound environment plays an important role since it can either promote or hinder healthy sleep patterns. This can be achieved using white noise machines, soft music, or even sleep tracks that are available on various applications free of charge.
During sleep, your brain might be better suited to recognize and use familiar sounds, so those sounds may not be as effective in keeping you awake at night. Having earplugs or sealing doors could help reduce the noise that would keep you awake at night.
3. Temperature:
Sleep is crucial for our health and well-being; therefore, it is important that the temperature of our bedroom is appropriate. The ideal range for temperature during sleep is 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit, though this range may differ from individual to individual.
High temperatures can increase your body’s core temperature, which can hinder good sleep after consuming REM. Turning to cooler temperatures may help you sleep faster and for longer periods; this is very useful if a fan is placed right on you. Additionally, using a cooling pillow while sleeping can also help manage excessive body heat during your sleep.
4. Sense of Smell:
While looking, hearing, and feeling seem to be overpowering at times, the sense of smell can aid in sleep in a number of unexpected ways. Some researchers have discovered that some fragrances are capable of affecting how long it takes an individual to fall asleep and also the quality of the sleep an individual gets.
In particular, lavender scent has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety while promoting calmness and peaceful sleep. These fragrances are often included in aromatherapy diffusers or sprays used on pillows to create a calming atmosphere to help induce sleep.
Feel free to try which scents work best for you! Improving the sleeping conditions by introducing fragrances can be a cheap and simple way of improving the sleeping experience!
5. Sense of Comfort:
When going to bed, the need for an ideal ambiance that is warm and welcoming to the eyes and provides friendly pillows and mattresses that offer reclining comfort that converts to the current sleeping position is always a primary concern.
Being overstuffed affects sleep negatively by creating excessive pressure and restricting proper body alignment, while being undersized promotes neck problems for women.
When coupled with a comfortable bed, sleeping in a quiet space without the noise of a roommate or any other external sounds helps one fall asleep quicker as well as ensures they reach the REM stage faster. White noise machines, ear plugs, eye shades, and dark curtains can also be used to ensure distractions are kept at a minimum and help improve sleep quality.
6. Exercise:
Exercise enables an individual to be in overall good health. In addition to stress and anxiety relief, which helps in improving sleep, exercise strengthens muscles as well as enhances a person’s mood.
A key factor in determining the right exercise is customizing a program to suit your liking and your sleeping pattern. As a case in point, Tai Chi and Pilates are exercises that help with de-stressing and relaxation of the body and mind at the same time. Also, it is crucial to plan these exercises at certain times.
For a better environment that prevents tossing and turning during the night, create an ideal environment according to the set sleep guidelines, as it can help you sleep better.
7. Electronics:
Phones or a partner that snores tend to disrupt one’s sleep. In case you don’t have any option other than wearing sleep masks, there are blue-light-blocking apps at your disposal that assist you in such situations.
Investing in the one true item that has been proven to grant restful sleep is creating an ideal sleeping atmosphere. Considering a relaxing warm bath and a dark, cool room right before sleep encourages great health. Seeking professional help is a good solution for insomnia disorders as well, just as optimizing your sleep environment is an extensive and time-consuming task because the ideal sleeping atmosphere is expensive to procure.
8. Bedtime Routine:
Listening to sleep-promoting equipment combined with relaxing music, reading, and practicing meditation in the darkest room with integrated noise-setting devices will aid the attunement to sleep readiness. Inevitably reducing the struggles to sleep will lead to the setting of a sleeping routine, which drastically increases the quality of sleep.
Although it might seem that these guidelines are simple, additional studies should determine possible moderators on the relation between bedtime routine and sleep quality, for example, stereotypes and racial, cultural, or sociodemographic characteristics. All in all, establishing conditions geared towards adequate sleep is important to health and wellness.
9. Interior Design:
Your bedroom is one of the most important elements of your room for deep and short sleep. If it’s disorganized and filled with too many noises and lights, it shouldn’t be so straightforward to go to sleep.
On the other hand, as creating a perfect sleep space is ultimately personal, there are a couple of basic sleeping methods that could improve sleep quality. Make a point to restrict activities in the bedroom to sex and sleep; Keep chargers, books, and anything else off your bedside tables that might be a disruption to going to bed; Think about thick curtains, earplugs, or white noise machines to shield your ear from the noise that may be a disturbance for you.
