Here’s How Your Bedroom Impacts Your Sleep Hygiene

The past year has affected many aspects of our daily lives in unprecedented ways and unsurprisingly, sleep is one of them. In a recent study carried out by King’s College London and Ipsos MORI, it was found that 50% of the UK population have noticed their sleep has been more disturbed than usual, and 2 in 5 said they were sleeping fewer hours a night on average compared with before the lockdown.

Too many sleepless nights or poor quality sleep can have both long and short-term effects on our mental and physical health – not something we want to contend with in addition to Covid-19. Pandemic aside, it’s common for there to be moments in life when the amount of shuteye you’re getting seems to be diminishing (here’s looking at you, new parents), or when we can’t help but lay awake at night overthinking something. That being said, good health and good sleep hygiene start at home and there are plenty of things you can do to help set yourself up for quality rest.

More than anything, you should aim to create a space that minimises sleep disturbances and promotes restful sleep. Strong sleep hygiene means having both a bedroom environment and daily routines that promote consistent, uninterrupted sleep. A disorganized or cluttered space can add to stress, impede relaxation and distract you when you’re trying to drift off.

Aside from sunshine, there are many light-based wellness products on the market. Wake-up lights that simulate a sunrise by gradually getting brighter get your internal clock going in the morning so that you wake up feeling energised, and many have customisable options to suit your age, lifestyle habits or other preferences. Dimmer switches are great for all rooms in the house, especially in the bedroom. Allowing for custom-controlled brightness on overhead lights is particularly impactful.

Ensuring reading lights and bedside lamps aren’t too glaring and are just the right brightness to prevent eye strain is important too. Choosing the right light bulb wattage based on the desired location and use for each particular lamp will help create the perfect bedroom ambience and consider that lampshades can also diffuse the strength of lighting.

The amount of sunlight we get has a huge role to play in sleep too. More of us have been working from home, children have been homeschooling and overall, we’ve been leaving the house far, far less. This results in less exposure to daylight, which can disrupt our internal body clocks.

Decorative throws and pillows make a bedroom look aesthetically pleasing and feel comforting, but these should be removed when you’re going to sleep as they can just make you feel hot and stuffy. That being said, if you sleep beside someone who runs at a totally different temperature to you, keeping that cosy throw at arm’s length may come in useful!

Fabrics such as wool and woven textiles are known to absorb sound, so adding a few cushions made of this in your bedroom, perhaps on a chair or sofa, can serve as sustainable soundproofing tools.

Sometimes, hearing something else can help you drown out an annoying sound. Sometimes, the whirr of a fan can be relaxing. You can set up built-in speakers to play white noise, comforting music or calming nature sounds which blur out background noise and provide some relief. There are also certain wall coatings that are applied as base or finishing paint coats that are designed to absorb mid-range sounds.

The Top Things To Consider When Purchasing A Mattress

The four key areas of focus with bespoke mattresses are posture, support, temperature and space:

Support – With the correct support for different parts of your body you can enhance your REM sleep – the most restorative, mood-enhancing part of your sleep cycle. Correct support relieves pressure points and removes the disruption from tossing and turning.

Posture – To keep your spine in its natural position, you must sink into the bed to some extent, or your spine will bend unnaturally. Keeping your body in the correct position is vital with feet slightly elevated to improve circulation.

Temperature – Your body temperature usually varies according to the sleep stage. Naturally, breathable materials are essential to maintaining your normal body temperature at the sleeping surface, channelling moisture away and in turn, improving the quality of your sleep.

Space – Space is essential. A standard king size bed allows you a comfortable 2ft 5 (75cm) each if you are sharing, but a larger bed offers greater comfort. Partner disturbances are reduced and the quality of your sleep reaches even greater heights.

A poor night’s sleep can have you struggling with irritability, brain fog, sugar cravings and lack of concentration the following day. On a good night, your brain will cycle through two main stages of sleep several times each night: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep (which has three different stages within it). The deeper, non-REM sleep is particularly vital for our brain’s function and health, so aiming for 7-9 hours a night will give your body ample time to get into these deeper stages.

The food we eat and when we eat it can impact our sleep. Avoiding heavy meals before bedtime will mean that our body’s aren’t expending energy on digestion.

Proper ventilation and regular cleaning will tackle issues such as mould and dust mites which can affect sleep by exacerbating allergies. Hypoallergenic bedding or an air purifier to reduce humidity can make a considerable difference.