You may be getting good sleep quantity, but is your sleep quality up to par?
Getting good sleep — and enough of it — is critical for good health and productivity as well as mental health. The good news is, with a few insightful tweaks, you can turn your bedroom into an oasis for restorative, restful sleep.
Let’s look at a few of the best ways to optimize your bedroom to get the best sleep of your life.
Optimize Your Bedroom for Restorative Sleep with These Simple Changes
We’ve gathered the most important bedroom hacks to improve your sleep health. If you’re ready for a spa-like sleep, here’s what you’ll need.
1. Keep Your Cool
The best temperature for deep, restful sleep is somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius. And, if you tend to “sleep hot” or suffer from hormonal shifts, having a colder bedroom might be even more critical.
Don’t just take it from the experts, though. Experiment with your thermostat to find the best temperature for your sleep. If you’re concerned about energy consumption, try opening windows in cooler weather or using a ceiling fan.
2. Keep Yourself in the Dark
You want to turn the lights out on your hypothalamus to get the most out of sleep.
That’s the part of your brain that controls your internal body clock — and it does so by monitoring the light signals received through your optic nerves.
When your eyes are bombarded with light, melatonin, the hormone that controls sleep, is reduced and cortisol continues flowing to keep you alert. The result? You end up staring at the ceiling half the night.
According to studies, even short exposure to electric light, ambient light from streetlights, or even starlight, can inhibit sleep.
The solution?
Turn off all electronic lights at night. Cover lighted alarm clock numbers or at least turn the clock away from your face. Install motion-activated nightlights if you get up at night and install blackout shades if you live in a brightly-lit neighborhood or have large windows that let in the moonlight.
No money for window shades? No worries — purchase a face mask with a comfortable band to wear over your eyes at night is an inexpensive solution.
3. Settle the Sounds
Whether you have noisy neighbors, lots of traffic, or a snoring partner to contend with, dealing properly bedroom noise is a must for good sleep. In cases where a nasally-challenged bedmate is wreaking havoc on your sleep, investing in good, comfortable pair of earplugs will help ease you into dreamland.
For more constant air clutter, try a white noise machine to help blur background noise. Quiet nature sounds not only block ambient noises, but have a soothing effect as well.
4. Make Sure Your Mattress Meets Expectations
Let’s face it — your mattress is where you spend your entire sleeping life. It should be the most well-thought-out purchase in your bedroom.
And yet, too many people purchase cheaply made mattresses and, worse yet, hold onto them for long after their useful life. Your mattress should be replaced around year eight, or earlier if it becomes uncomfortable. One study that looked at back pain during sleep found that getting a new mattress improved stress and decreased pain.
If you’re waking up with painful spots and aching joints, or your mattress has got dents in it and sagging areas, replace it right away.
Ready for a Great Night’s Sleep? Let’s Get Your Room Ready!
Paying close attention to these four aspects of your bedroom — temperature, light, sound, and sleep surface — can make an enormous difference in the quality of your sleep. And good quality sleep brings with it a host of benefits, from lowered stress and increased daytime alertness to reduced pain.
While most of these factors can be managed easily and inexpensively, the one area where you don’t want to skimp on quality is your mattress.
You’ll want a mattress that promises softness and support without the “sinking” feeling some memory foam mattresses can give, making a hybrid mattress featuring both coils and open-cell material the perfect choice.
That’s why we designed the LunaZen with your sleep quality in mind from start to finish.
Our innovative design even features a cooling-gel-infused mattress to keep hot sleepers cool and comfortable all night. Open-cell material means no uncomfortable pressure points while steel coils offer individualized support and no motion transfer.
So, add aLunaZen to your bedroom, draw the shades, turn off the lights and drift into the best sleep of your life!