Sleep Environment -How to Perfect it.
Enjoy Your Best Sleep Ever!
Your sleep environment is a huge contributing factor as to how well you will sleep.
By improving your surrounds you can have a dramatic effect on quality and get you closer to perfect sleep.
Studies often refer to “improving sleep hygiene.” Rather than relating to a cleaner sleep environment, improving sleep hygiene refers to the factors around your bedtime routine and the environment you sleep in. This will give you a much better chance of achieving a perfect sleep.
The Mattress:
This is the logical place to start. If you are tossing and turning and constantly trying to get comfortable throughout the night, there’s a good chance that your mattress is not looking after your body.
Finding a mattress that will support your spine, whilst also providing optimum comfort as you sleep can be a big exercise.
Studies have found that most people will benefit from a medium to firm mattress, with a nice soft comfortable top. This can be achieved in either a spring mattress, a foam mattress, or a combination of the two.
Check out our earlier article on the best mattresses for back pain by clicking here and our Top Ten Tips for Side Sleepers by clicking here.
Buying a top quality mattress is an investment in your health. Most top quality mattresses have a ten year guarantee, ensuring great quality sleep for years to come.
Remove the Fear!
We all know how sometimes a mattress feels fantastic for the 20-30 minutes maximum that you might lie on it in a shop, only to find that once you get it home and use it for a few weeks, it’s not so amazing after all.
Many mattress companies have recognised this problem and now offer a free trial.
That means you can sleep on their mattresss for up to a full year in the case of Nectar Sleep, and take it back if you don’t like it! A full year!
To find out which mattress companies offer the best guarantees check out our full list here.
Pillows:
Almost as important as the right mattress, is ensuring you have the right pillow.
If your head and neck are not well supported and comfortable, then it won’t matter how good your mattress is, good sleep will be hard to find.
Bedroom Walls:
Try to create a soothing environment when choosing the paint colour for your bedroom walls.
Vibrant, loud colours tend to excite the mind, which is the exact opposite of what you want when trying to bunk down for the night.
Travelodge Hotels (travelodge.co.uk) conducted a study of 2000 British homes to find what colour schemes were associated with the longest and best quality sleep. Click here to read the study results.
They found that the colour blue was associated with the best and longest periods of sleep.
Remove irritants or Barriers to good sleep:
If there is a noisy fan, get it fixed or replaced.
My own personal experience has been a snoring dog! Just recently as I was finally falling asleep, my dog Ned started up like a chainsaw. I had to go and move his head position to get him quiet.
Make sure that your room is dark by having light blocking curtains, shade or blinds. Your body needs the darkness to know that it is time to get ready for sleep.
Don't Cook Yourself!
Don’t make your bedroom too warm with heaters or too many blankets or hot doonas (duvets). Obviously you need adequate temperature to be comfortable, but lean towards the cooler end of the comfort zone.
The AASM.org (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) has stated that a temperature of 67 deg F (20 deg C) is the optimum for sleep.
This will make getting to sleep and staying asleep much easier.
Don’t make your bedroom too warm with heaters or too many blankets or hot doonas (duvets). Obviously you need adequate temperature to be comfortable, but lean towards the cooler end of the comfort zone.
The AASM.org (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) has stated that a temperature of 67 deg F (20 deg C) is the optimum for sleep.
This will make getting to sleep and staying asleep much easier.
Declutter:
Get rid of any bedroom clutter.
Remove anything from your room that is not related to sleep. Don’t use your bedroom as a “catch all” for storage. Clutter affects the subconscious and can cause difficulties when trying to get to sleep.
Televisions, computers, cell phones and other electronic devices are a big “no no” in your perfect sleep environment.
Also make sure to remove anything that has to do with work or your household finances. Being reminded of stressful situations can cause you to lie there for hours trying to sleep while your mind goes into overdrive trying to solve the problems of the day.
Block out the World:
If you live in a noisy house with people coming and going at all hours, or the neighbourhood itself is rowdy, find a way to block out the noise.
If shutting the doors and windows isn’t enough you may need earplugs, but they come with a strong warning: Make sure you can hear the smoke alarm clearly!
Feel Safe and Secure:
Fear of intruders breaking in can be very damaging to your efforts to get a perfect sleep.
If you are concerned make sure to invest in good locks and possibly a security system so you can sleep in bliss knowing that you are safe and secure.
Summary:
There are many factors which can conspire to rob you of vital hours of high quality sleep.
Work through which of our tips to improve sleep are going to be the most relevant to you, and which ones are going to be the easiest to fix.
For example, if you aren’t in a position to replace your mattress, you may be able to declutter your room and invest in some block out blinds.
Every little thing you can do to improve your sleep environment will go a long way to helping you to get a perfect sleep, and be ready to tackle whatever the world throws at you the next day!
[…] To find out more read our blog on Creating the Perfect Sleep Environment by clicking here. […]