To get a good night’s sleep, your bedroom must be a place of rest. This space should inspire peace, harmony, and relaxation. How you decorate your bedroom contributes to the overall atmosphere in the room, and, ultimately, to the quality of your sleep. These simple home decor tricks will help you build a space of relaxation and get a good night’s rest.
Harmony Comes in Airy, Uncluttered Spaces
The first rule of a restful bedroom is to keep it as free as possible. Don’t use this room to store things that you don’t need around in the evenings and in the mornings. Dressing areas are usually placed in the bedroom to save space, but make sure that when the doors of your wardrobe are closed, the room remains airy and spacious. Clutter in your bedroom stimulates agitation and that is something you don’t need where you sleep. Keep the bare necessities in your bedroom and you will sleep better for it.
Weighted Blankets Will Keep You Tucked In
Better sleep lies in the details and weighted blankets are the perfect example of small improvements that can make a huge difference. Unlike regular blankets, these blankets apply an evenly distributed weight to your body, which instantly makes you feel better under it because your body produces and releases serotonin, also known as the happiness hormone. Weighted blankets are like a hug for your entire body. This is called Deep Touch Pressure (DTP) and it acts on natural stimuli for your body to reduce anxiety and help you feel safe and sleep better.
Warm Light Makes for a Cozy Bedroom
Of course, you should make the bedroom a proper place for sleeping, but that is not the only time you are there. You probably spend some time in bed before you go to sleep as well, reading a book, a magazine, or just scrolling away on your phone, right? When you do that, you have the lights on and the tone of the light will greatly influence how soon you’ll go to sleep and how ready you will be for it. While light stimulates energy and active behavior. This is meant to keep you awake. But warm tones create a cozy atmosphere in your bedroom and help you relax right before you fall asleep.
Get the TV out of the Bedroom for Better Sleep
TV’s, comfy beds, and lots of pillows might seem like a match made in heaven, but they are really not. Watching TV right before you go to sleep has a negative effect on the quality of your sleep and there are plenty of reasons for that. First, you have the bright light, which keeps you awake instead of helping you go to sleep. Then, you have the content on TV, which keeps your mind engaged and actively keeps you awake. When you do go to sleep, there is a high chance that you will dream about what you’ve seen and most TV programs do not make for good dreams. Moreover, your mind wants to stay awake, but your body wants to go to sleep. This clash causes agitation, which also transfers onto your dreams. Keep the TV for the living room and focus on decorating your bedroom in a way that stimulates sleep, not TV series binging.
Peace By Peaceful Imagery
The things we have in a room where we sleep affect our mood subconsciously. The imagery in your bedroom should inspire relaxation and harmony because those images will be recorded in your mind. Avoid imagery depicting violence and action (yes, movie posters included) or any types of elements that might trigger anxiety in you. Keep in mind that we each have our own specific triggers, so make sure that any imagery you have in your bedroom is something that has a positive effect on you.
Free Up Your Windows and Let the Air In
Airing out your bedroom is a basic rule of sleep hygiene, but the space around your windows is also important. Make sure that there aren’t shelves, cases, or wardrobes right next to the windows to create a relaxing space. Placing large objects right next to the windows limits the light that gets in, but there is more to it. Subconsciously, being in a room where the exit areas are closed in or limited makes us feel anxious because the connection to the outside world is narrowed down. So free up your windows and you will feel more relaxed.
Drape Away the Excess Light
For some people, absolute darkness is paramount for a good night’s rest. If you are among them and the first light of the morning wakes you up before your alarm goes off, then you need some good old fashioned drapes in your life. Even if the light doesn’t bother you, making your bedroom extra dark will help you be extra rested there, so try them out.
As you can see, how we decorate the bedroom has a massive effect on how we sleep. Putting these simple tricks in action will help you get a good night’s rest, so give them a chance!