Bedroom Essentials For A Restful Sleep
Many studies show that a restful sleep at night is vital for one’s mental, emotional, and physical health. However, in the real world, rest doesn’t come easy to many people, particularly those who live a fast-paced lifestyle or are busy taking care of their families. Now, if you count yourself as one of the sufferers of insufficient slumber, don’t despair. There are many things you can do to help promote better sleep.
Since most people catch their forty winks in the bedroom, it’s the first place anybody who doesn’t clock in the right amount of sleep should check out. Look around your bedroom to determine if you have all the elements that may promote better sleep. Don’t know what they are? Here are the top bedroom essentials for a night or day of restful sleep:
Table of Contents
1. Wallow On The Best Pillow
Believe it or not, the right pillow is crucial in helping improve the quality of your sleep. Pillows are where you rest your head when you sleep. So, if they’re super hard, uncomfortable, or causing you to sneeze, you may not achieve the restful slumber your body and mind need. On top of comfort, picking the proper pillow may also aid in maintaining the neutral alignment of your neck, head, and spine.
A buckwheat pillow is one type of head cushion gaining a lot of buzz in today’s sleep accessories market. First developed in Japan, this pillow uses buckwheat hulls to ensure a firm surface that contours according to the shape of a person’s head and neck. Other buckwheat pillow benefits include heat resistance, durability, and anti-allergen protection. So, if you experience allergic reactions when using ordinary pillows, you may want to give buckwheat pillows a try. The usual pillow filler materials like cotton, latex, or feathers may be responsible for your rhinitis and other irritations.
2. Supplement With Scent
How many people lose the desire to sleep after getting a whiff of bacon or pancakes? The answer is countless. When you smell something like bacon, your brain will give your body a signal that it’s already breakfast time, so you must get out of your bed. This reaction is particularly true for those who are used to eating bacon for breakfast. The smell of delicious food can make you hungry, so it’d be hard to go to sleep until you satisfy your food craving. It’s an example from anecdotal evidence that proves the power of scent.
So, if you want to make your bedroom conducive to sleeping and avoid sleepless nights, you may supplement your sleep environment with the right scent. Here are some scents that may assist you to sleep and how to incorporate them into your bedroom:
- Lavender is known to combat hyperactivity. If you have a busy day, your mind needs to be calm and relaxed to induce you to sleep. This herb helps lull kids and adults to sleep. Aside from using lavender-scented lotion or soap, you can also use an aromatherapy pillow that smells like French lavender to make your mind and body calm and ready for slumber.
- Clary Sage is a favorite among aromatherapists, but relatively unknown to most people. This essential oil is beneficial because it can make you feel comfortable and tranquil. So, if you can’t get thoughts related to your work or school out of your mind, you may put a drop or two of clary sage essential oil to your diffuser to facilitate the relaxation of your mind and body.
- Chamomile is another popular herb known to soothe the mind and promote sleep. Many people swear that drinking chamomile tea two hours before bedtime is a surefire way to get anyone in the mood for rest. However, some people don’t like drinking tea at night because doing so may result in several trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. To get the benefits of chamomile without the diuretic effects, you may light up chamomile-scented candles before bedtime. Just be sure to put your candles away from combustible materials like curtains or paper.
- Vanilla is a sweet scent known to promote happy thoughts and ease depression and anxiety. In some people, vanilla effectively makes them feel warm because the smell reminds them of their moms’ home-baked cookies when they’re young. If this scent positively affects your sleep behavior, you could use a vanilla-scented fragrance mist for your bedroom.
3. Assess The Mattress Carefully
Aside from finding the right pillow, it’d help if you get the appropriate mattress, too. Your pillow will assist with spine alignment, but your body will need total comfort to induce restful sleep. If you’re using a decades-old mattress, you may start to experience back pains and other aches that’ll leave you turning and tossing instead of sleeping like a baby all night long.
So, like the story of Goldilocks, you better find the mattress that’s just right if you want to sleep your way at night. Here are some tips on how you can do just that:
Ditch your mattress if it’s over 12 years old, or even less if it’s made of pillowtop.
Know which one is right by trying out different types of mattresses before you buy. The most common types are memory foam, pillowtop, innerspring, and hybrid.
Match your mattress with your sleeping position.
Consider your weight when buying. People on the heavier side may want to pick a firmer mattress to adjust for sinkage. Meanwhile, if you weigh less than 143 pounds, you may want to consider a less firm mattress and go for plushier options.
The most expensive isn’t always the best, so pay attention to your budget when buying a mattress. After all, thinking about how to pay for an expensive mattress may keep you awake at night, which could defeat the purpose of the sleep-inducing effects of a top-of-the-line expensive mattress. Check out these best bed rails for elderly.
4. Check Your Choice of Noise
Whether you live in the city or the countryside, nighttime noises might make it difficult for you to catch some Zzz’s. In the city, you can hear cars honking in the busy streets. Meanwhile, noises from croaking frogs, crickets, or even the howling of wild animals might disturb your sleep in the countryside.
So, how can you fight off such sounds? Well, you use other types of noises. One popular type of noise that’s often used to promote deep sleep is white noise, which is a combination of high-pitched frequencies. Some people consider ambient sounds such as the whirring of an electric fan or the noise created by air conditioners as white noise. But if you want to ensure you hear the kind of white noise that’ll help you doze off, then you might want to consider buying a white noise machine.
Another type of background sound is called pink noise. It’s believed to help people with sleep disorders by inducing restful sleep. To understand pink noise, think of it as white noise but only subtler and lower in frequency. So, it’s like the sound of rustling trees or the pitter-patter of steady rain. The good thing about pink noise is it helps drown annoying sounds, including the person’s snoring beside you. Pink noise machines are also available commercially. But if you want to save money, you can download a clip or look for an app that offers this type of sleep-inducing sound.
5. Get It Right With The Perfect Light
Ideally, you might need your bedroom to be pitch black to help induce your body to sleep. However, the kind of light you’re using an hour or so before bedtime might influence your sleep quality. Exposure to blue light like the one coming from your tablet, smartphone, or television may disrupt your sleep. So, if you’re already having insomnia, you better ditch your gadgets out of your bedroom and use appropriate lighting for at least an hour before you plan to go to sleep.
Aside from blue light, using bright artificial light is also a no-no. This type of lighting may be suitable for the library, your home office, or the kitchen. But it’ll not do you any good when it comes to your snooze time. The brightness might trick your brain into thinking it’s day instead of night. So, your Circadian rhythm could be disrupted, causing you to lose sleep or keep awake at night.
If you like to read a book before bedtime, choose a warm light or slightly dimmer light on your nightstand. Such light will be conducive to both reading and sleeping. For your babies and kids who want to have lights on at night, dim colored lights could do the trick. They’ll still be able to find their way to the toilet when they wake up in the wee hours of the night, but the brightness won’t prevent them from getting back to deep slumber.
6. Zone Out With Blackout Curtains
Not everybody has the luxury of having ideal sleeping conditions. Some live near a well-lighted billboard or streetlamps while others must work at night and sleep during the day. If you fall into the category of people with problematic sleeping time and environment, then consider the blackout curtain as your slumber buddy.
This bedroom essential will keep off sunlight and other bright lights responsible for your irregular sleeping pattern. Since there are tons of blackout curtains available in the market, you might need to follow these tips to help you find the best one for you:
Blackout doesn’t mean black. Please don’t get discouraged from buying one because you think it won’t fit the color motif of your bedroom. Blackout curtains come in different colors. So, you can find one that’ll complement and match the theme of your room.
You don’t have to throw out your existing curtains if you love them. You can turn them into light-shielding curtains by using blackout lining instead. Such linings usually come in white, so it’d be easy to match them to whatever existing curtains you already have.
Be mindful of the quality of fabric when buying this kind of curtain. If you’re trying to block out the sun because you’re sleeping during the day, choose a denser and thicker material to provide the utmost light-blocking properties. However, if the light outside your bedroom window isn’t that bright, you can choose lighter materials for your blackout curtain.
Think about maintenance before buying your curtain. If you don’t want to spend extra money or time maintaining your blackout curtain, purchase something made from linen, 100% polyester, or even a cotton-polyester mix. These materials are easy to care for and maintain. Some thicker and more expensive blackout curtains may be beautiful and practical, but you must be willing to shell out money for their maintenance since you may need to send them to the dry cleaner for cleaning.
7. Go Comfy With Sheets And Blankets
If you want a restful sleep, you must engage as many senses as possible. Scented pillows, dimmed lighting, and pink noise all promotes deep slumber. But if you’re having a hard time getting the right amount of snooze at night, perhaps you need your sense of touch to add another layer to help you achieve that much-desired forty winks.
Here are some of the considerations in picking the suitable sheets and blankets:
Always use clean and well-maintained sheets. Dirty, smelly, and scratchy beddings might make you feel itchy and can trigger allergies that may keep you awake all night.
Mind the thread count. Try to buy sheets with the highest thread count your money can afford. It’ll determine the softness and quality of the sheets.
Choose bed sheets depending on the weather. During warm summer months, you want to stay away from synthetic fabrics because they trap heat, which may make you sweaty and restless, preventing you from sleeping soundly. Cotton fabrics are breathable and are ideal when the weather is hot. Meanwhile, you may want to use materials such as cotton sateen. Fleece, and flannel during the winter months because they can trap heat and help you combat chilly weather.
Bottom Line
Sleep is essential to your overall health and well-being, so you need to have deep and uninterrupted slumber during your sleep hours. Ensure to equip your bedroom with all the necessary accessories that’ll promote better sleep quality and improve your sleep behavior.
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