How to Set Up Your Bedroom for Better Sleep
If life isn’t swimming along quite the way you planned, a good place to start looking for solutions is in your bedroom. Sleep is so important to our health and wellbeing that the rest of our life often suffers when we don’t get enough high-quality restorative sleep.
Not getting enough sleep is a pretty common issue for most Americans. In fact, not getting adequate shut-eye is such a serious problem in the US the CDC has named "insufficient sleep" a public health epidemic! !
A lot of factors play into the increasingly tired world we live in. Stress, caffeine overload, physical maladies...all these play into how well we can sleep, and what effect it has on the rest of our lives.
While we may not be able to control all the factors that play into our body’s ability to rest, most of us have complete control over one thing:
Our bedroom.
Making the most of your sleep environment will give you a powerful advantage when it comes to getting adequate rest, and can help you rise above life’s stress and circumstance to achieve fully restorative sleep.
Transform your room into a restful haven and invite better sleep with these tips.
Choose the right Mattress
The most important factor in capturing the ever-elusive perfect night of sleep is to choose the right mattress. Unfortunately, the mattress market has been completely saturated in the past few years, making it difficult to sort through all the options and find the right fit.
Lots of factors go into the comfort of a mattress. If you toss and turn to find a comfortable position for sleep or wake up feeling stiff and achy, you might have a problem with your current mattress.
Mattress discomfort can come from several sources. Sleep position and body type determine how firm a mattress should be for maximum comfort, so if you’re waking up with pain or having trouble staying asleep comfortably, you may not have the right mattress firmness to match your body type and sleep style.
Quality plays a factor in your comfort as well. Many commercial mattresses available today are made from synthetic materials that break down quickly after just a few years. This creates dips and dents in the mattress surface, which comprises the mattress’s ability to support your frame adequately while you sleep.
The bottom line is that you won’t sleep if you aren’t comfortable, and that will prevent you from getting the rest you deserve.
If you do find your mattress lacking, you’ll want to replace it right away.
What to do about it:
Choose a latex mattress made with all-natural and organic materials whenever possible. This not only minimizes exposure to toxic chemicals while you sleep, it makes for a better investment since all-natural latex holds its shape for a very long time and doesn’t degrade quickly with use the way synthetic memory foam-type beds do.
Invest in the Right Bedding
The right bedding can go a long way toward creating a sleep space that honors your health. Most people don’t give a second thought to the pillow they rest their face on each night, or the comforter that cocoons their body, but these items are tools you can use to build a better night for yourself
Here are a few sleep-related obstacles you can overcome with the right bedding:
- Allergies—If you struggle with fatigue and listlessness due to lack of quality sleep, there’s a good chance allergies may be contributing to the problem. Feather allergies, pet dander, dust mites, and mildew can all set up shop in your pillow and make it harder for you to get the rest you deserve.
Your face is closest to your pillow and blankets while you sleep, so you breath in whatever your bedding materials hold all night long. Not only can these allergens create breathing problems and exacerbate existing snoring and apnea conditions, your body sees these allergens as a foreign invader, and will spend much of your valuable rest time with its immune system in overdrive trying to fight the perceived onslaught from the inside out.
With your immune system in overdrive all night you miss out on restorative sleep and also risk chronic inflammation, which can have devastating health consequences long term.
What to do about it:
Choose pillows and comforters that are naturally hypoallergenic. Pillows made from organic latex are a fantastic solution and not only resists mold, mildew, and dust mite populations, they will last much longer than a traditional feather or synthetic pillow, making it a better investment for your wallet and the environment.
- Temperature—we’ve all experienced how hard it can be to sleep when we’re too hot or too cold. And while experts suggest that the perfect bedroom temperature for sleep is somewhere between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit, that recommendation doesn’t account for individual differences in body temperature.
Sure, you can do your best to maintain your bedroom temperature at a perfectly balmy 66 degrees, but the best way to regulate your temperature while you sleep is with the right bedding materials.
What to do about it:
If possible, always choose a mattress with a layer of Joma wool. Joma wool is naturally temperature regulating and will wick moisture away from your body while you sleep.
Most of us could benefit from creating a better sleep space. Ensure your health and well being by carefully crafting a comfortable and healthy bedroom that supports quality sleep, and ultimately your best quality life.