How to Make Your Bedroom Sleep-friendly

Sleep doesn’t always come easy to everyone. Given our fast-paced environments, sleep has become increasingly harder to come by. As a response to this, we wanted to share our tips for better sleep and better sleep hygiene. 

What is sleep hygiene: 

The Sleep Foundation defines sleep hygiene as having a bedroom environment and daily routines that promote consistent, uninterrupted sleep. Keeping a stable sleep schedule, making your bedroom comfortable and free of disruptions, following a relaxing pre-bed routine, and building healthy habits during the day can all contribute to ideal sleep hygiene.

For this blog, we will talk about how to make our bedroom a more sleep-friendly space. Our tips for achieving this are:

1. Purchase blackout curtains 
2. Paint bedroom walls with calming colors.
3. Make sure your mattress and pillow are the right fit for your needs.
4. Limit TV/screen time at night. 
5. Keep work outside of the bedroom. 

Blackout curtains: Eliminating light from getting into your room will help immensely with sleep. When the brain sees lights of any form, it immediately computes that as daytime, even at night. When our brains believe it’s daytime, the production of melatonin is slowed. And melatonin is the hormone that initiates sleep for us. 

Bedroom walls: Bright, vibrant colors can make any room look fantastic, but in a bedroom, it can cause anxiety. Painting your walls calm, soothing, cool tones, pastel colors, and less bright colors will engage your brain in believing that your room is a safe space. 

Mattress and pillows: Ensure your mattress and pillow are the right fit for you and support your body as best as possible. Some people need more firm surfaces for sleep, and some need more cushion. Whichever surface you need, make sure your mattress and pillow are providing this for you. To find the best mattresses and pillows click this link. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/best-mattress

Limit screen time: Just as with the blackout curtains, our brains don’t wind down when we are exposed to light at night. And our TVs and devices are no exception to this rule. Even with a blue light filter, although it is better, light is still light. We are primitively wired to have minimal exposure to light at night. Here we have some light bulb recommendations for nighttime. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/bed-lights-that-can-help-you-sleep

Keep work out of your bed: We realize that some people live in small spaces and don’t have room for a couch or a desk. If that’s your situation, then do the best you can with the space you have. However, for those who have room, keep work out of bed as much as possible. Don’t answer any work-related calls, emails, texts, etc., while you’re in bed. That energy can be felt when it’s time to sleep, and we want only to use our beds for sleep. The only exception is for intimacy.

We hope these tips help you get restful, peaceful, and rejuvenating sleep. 

Be well, 

Dr. Horowitz & Staff

Articles used:

1. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene
2. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/bed-lights-that-can-help-you-sleep