Three
Bedroom Tricks
Your bedroom needs to be a breathing space and a haven from the outside world — a place you associate with rest, calm, and comfort, and one you look forward to heading off to at the end of the day for some much-needed nestling down. The tips and tricks in this chapter will help you create a space that cocoons you in an ambience of serene tranquility — one that will woo you to dreamland. Night night.
68 ✦ Keep yourself in the dark
Your bedroom has to be pretty dark for you to fall asleep easily — and stay asleep. As I explained earlier, darkness triggers the release of melatonin, the hormone that promotes restful sleep; and even a small amount of light hitting the cells in our retinas — from a street light, for example — can hamper its production.
When you turn out the light, you shouldn’t be able to see your hand clearly in front of your face. After your eyes have gotten used to the dark, you should still find it difficult to see across the room.
69 ✦ Work out how the light gets in
If your room isn’t pitch black, look for where the light is leaking in and fix that leak. If it’s seeping in through your curtains, try lined or blackout curtains, or blinds. A good old-fashioned draft stopper can prevent any light from creeping in at the bottom of the door. And close the door if light from the rest of the house, from the landing or hall perhaps, is coming into your bedroom.
70 ✦ Turn it off
Who knew that even the small amount of light emitted by your phone, a charging iPad, or your radio can disturb your sleep? Switch off all your appliances or cover them up when you turn out the bedroom light. Opt for digital radios or clocks that have orange or red light displays rather than those with sleep-disrupting white or blue light, if you can.
71 ✦ Cover clock faces . . .
. . . or turn timepieces away from you when you switch off the lights. Why? Because if you start clock-watching when you can’t sleep you’ll start stressing out about how much sleep you’re missing. Then you’ll start counting how many hours you have left until your alarm goes off. Then you’ll start to worry about how badly you’ll cope tomorrow. In short, by now your mind will be busy and anxious, which will keep you awake for even longer.
So as soon as you’ve set your alarm, turn it away from eye’s view.
72 ✦ Get your night-light right, and go red
If you use night-lights in your bedroom — maybe they make you feel safer, or you use them to line your route to the bathroom for nighttime trips so you don’t trip up — you might want to change them for the red-bulbed variety. Even the dim light from a white or blue night-light can interrupt melatonin secretion. Red-based light has a longer wavelength and less power to interfere with your sleepy state. So go red.
73 ✦ Don’t use your phone as your alarm clock
If your phone is the last thing you look at before lights-out and the first thing you look at in the morning, it can lead to unhealthy habits. When you set your phone’s alarm at night, for instance, does it often turn into a quick check of those emails or social media? An hour later, are you wound up by work worries or hyped up by a Twitter storm? Plus, there’s the issue of all that blue light confusing your body’s circadian clock, so you may end up feeling wide awake again.
Get a proper alarm clock, or use one on a radio, making sure the alarm tone is a gentle one — not a loud ring, which can jolt you out of sleep with a shock. Leave your phone out of the bedroom, or at least out of arm’s reach. And checking emails or social media is not the most relaxing way to start your day — is it what you end up doing when you switch off your phone’s morning alarm? Be honest.
74 ✦ Play around with your pillows!
Are you a side sleeper, or do you prefer to sleep flat on your back? Or perhaps you like to lie on your front? Any position has the potential to put strain on your back, which can stop you from falling asleep or make you wake up intermittently through the night. The good news? Pillows aren’t just for heads — you can position them strategically elsewhere to help prevent back pain.
If you’re a stomach sleeper, try popping a pillow under your lower abdomen and pelvis to take some pressure off your back. Use a flattish pillow, or none, for your head. If you sleep on your side, try drawing your legs slightly toward your chest and placing a pillow between your knees to keep your hips, pelvis, and spine aligned. If you like to sleep on your back, put a pillow under your knees.
There. Perfect pillow placement for all!
75 ✦ Ache when you wake?
If you toss and turn to get comfy at lights-out, wake up in the early hours feeling sore, or ache when you wake, your mattress may be to blame.
But is it too hard or too soft? If your mattress is too hard, physiotherapists generally say you’ll be more likely to feel pain at pressure points such as the hips, pelvis, or shoulder. If it’s too soft and unsupportive, you might feel discomfort in the neck, shoulder, or mid or lower back.
So be like Goldilocks and find a mattress that’s not too hard, not too soft — but just right for you.
76 ✦ Mattress lost its mojo?
Whatever the case, mattresses do start to degrade after seven to ten years — or even earlier if they’re not of good quality. So it may be time for a new one if you want a comfortable night’s sleep.
One Oklahoma State University study took a group of healthy volunteers who were sleeping on mattresses that were on average nine and a half years old and who were experiencing back pain and disturbed sleep. The study leaders outfitted them with new medium-firm mattresses for twenty-eight days, and guess what? The volunteers reported better sleep and less painful backs.1
77 ✦ Lie back and relax . . . at the mattress store
Buying a new mattress is one of the most important purchases you’re going to make. So it makes sense that you don’t rush into it, or feel pressured, when you’re shopping for one. Don’t be shy about lying on as many beds as you like in the store — in your preferred sleeping position, front, back, or side — for several minutes at a time to get a real feel of how comfortable they are.
Remember these tricks:
78 ✦ Pillow-perfect
Our heads are pretty heavy. They weigh between ten and fourteen pounds, and place quite a burden on our neck muscles. It’s important, therefore, to find pillows that properly support our heads while we sleep so that we don’t wake with a real pain in the neck! A supportive pillow should keep your head and neck in line with your spine, just as they would be when you are standing. To check that your pillow is accurately doing its job, try these tricks:
If you persistently suffer from neck pain in bed, you might want to try an orthopedic pillow. One study found they helped support the neck and maintain the cervical curve better than feather or memory-foam pillows.2
You could also try visiting a physiotherapy practice that offers a service where they can measure you for a perfect-fit pillow.
79 ✦ Is your bed big enough?
Size matters when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, especially if you share your bed with a partner. The average person will move around up to sixty or seventy times a night, so you’re bound to be disturbed by a restless sleeper in a small bed. Bear in mind that a standard double bed is about four-feet, six-inches wide, giving each partner less space than a single bed, which is about three feet wide. It’s best to go for a bed as big as you can afford and that your room size allows. The Sleep Council suggests doing this test with your bed partner: lie side by side, with your arms behind your head and your elbows out. If your elbows touch, your bed isn’t wide enough.
Your bed should also be about four to six inches longer than the tallest person sleeping in it. A standard double bed measures about six-feet, three-inches long and a king size is about six-feet, six-inches. If you’re tall you should choose a bed frame without a raised footboard so you don’t end up feeling cramped — and with stubbed toes! If you’re really tall then look for companies that make extra-long beds . . . they are out there, but can cost a lot. And get this for a fun fact: you actually grow in height overnight as your spinal discs decompress when you lie down! So allow for an extra inch or two!
80 ✦ A game of two halves
Are you always on the losing side in the duvet tug-of-war and end up out in the cold? Or perhaps it’s you who rolls yourself up snug as a bug as your other half huffs and puffs trying to pull their half of the duvet back?
Whatever the case, the solution could be to sleep like the Scandinavians do. With two duvets. One single duvet each. It makes complete sense in that not only do you get to keep covered and cozy — and less likely to wake in the night because you’re cold — but you can also choose a warmer or cooler duvet than your sleeping partner prefers.
Simple solution! But it could be key to an undisturbed night’s sleep. And if you’re worried two duvets on the bed will look messy the morning after, just drape a blanket or throw over them both. Neat.
Alternatively, you could buy a duvet that’s larger than strictly necessary. If you sleep in a standard double bed, buy a king-size duvet. If you sleep in a king-size bed, buy a California king–size one. That way neither of you ends up uncovered in the middle-of-the-night duvet fight.
81 ✦ Let sleeping dogs lie?
We’ve all been told that letting man’s best friend sleep in the bedroom can disturb your own sleep. But research from the Mayo Clinic might have some good news for your cuddle-mutt.3
In the study, adults and their dogs wore activity trackers to monitor sleeping habits when the dog slept in the bedroom. Results showed that letting a furry family member on the bed and under the covers did, indeed, disrupt the adults’ sleep quality. But the good news for devoted dog owners is this: you don’t actually need to ban your canine companion from the bedroom completely. The same study found that allowing a dog to sleep off the bed — say, on the floor at the foot of it — didn’t necessarily adversely affect its owner’s sleep.
So, if you find it a comfort — or feel safer — with your dog in the bedroom, then it’s fine to let a sleeping dog lie (on the floor). However, if your dog is restless and you’re aware that it wakes you during the night, then you have to be firm with Fido and put him to bed downstairs.
82 ✦ Drop a few degrees
The body’s core temperature needs to fall by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit in order for our brains to receive the message to initiate the surge in nighttime melatonin production that helps us fall asleep. Years ago — before so many of our homes were centrally heated and insulated — our bodies would more naturally experience this gradual dip in core body temperature that comes as the sun sets. But now that we’re cocooned in unnaturally warm environments, it can be hard to cool off. Our brains, therefore, might not easily receive those essential messages to pump out the sleep hormones.
The ideal bedroom temperature is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Check yours — you’ll probably find it’s higher than that, so think about dropping your thermostat, turning off radiators in your bedroom, or letting in a little outside air.
83 ✦ Cool it on hot days
During bouts of hot weather, even the best of sleepers can struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep.
On hot sunny days keep your bedroom as cool as you can by drawing the curtains and shutting blinds throughout the day to keep the sun out. Open the windows at the front and back of the house to allow any air to circulate, and open windows at the top of the house — warm air rises, so this will give it an escape route.
Use an electric fan to circulate the air and place a bowl of ice cubes in front of it to cool the air as it blows.
84 ✦ Pave a way
Every night, check that the route from your bed to the bathroom is totally clear of any obstacles you could trip over if you need to visit the bathroom at night. That’s because, when you do wake up, you should avoid switching on any lights, which can mess with your melatonin production — and make you feel more awake.
Keep in the dark to stay as sleepy as you can, with your eyes half-open, half-closed — without putting yourself in any danger, of course! Keep a dim flashlight by the bed if you really can’t see where you’re going.
85 ✦ A clean sheet
Are you washing your bed sheets weekly?
Well, you should be. Bed linen not only soaks up sweat and body oils but also harbors dead skin cells: perfect food for dust mites, which can cause allergies — and disturb sleep.
A poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that 71 percent of people had a more comfortable night’s sleep on clean sheets, and 29 percent even headed off to bed earlier when they’d put fresh-smelling sheets on their beds.4 So wash yours weekly at a high temperature. No excuses.
86 ✦ Listen to white — or pink — noise
If traffic, neighbors, dogs barking, your other half snoring, or other bothersome noises stop you from falling, and staying, asleep you might want to try listening to white or pink noise. This kind of unchanging, constant background noise (such as rainfall, or the sound of a vacuum cleaner or a fan) contains lots of frequencies of equal intensity and helps mask or block out the environmental noise around you.
A study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that people who were played pink noise — a mix of high and low frequencies that sounds a little like a waterfall — enjoyed more slow-wave or deep sleep.5 And in an article published in the journal Sleep researchers noted that participants in their study fell asleep about 40 percent faster when listening to white noise.6
You can buy white- and pink-noise apps featuring things like ocean waves, or even the washing machine, to listen to at bedtime.
Alternatively, simply switch on a radio. Tuning in to a talk show or similar can help distract you from noise outside and relax your mind. As long as you don’t find the content too riveting, it could help you nod off.
87 ✦ Plump for natural fibers
Your sheets could be interfering with the quality of your sleep. Synthetic materials such as polyester don’t absorb moisture well and, as most of us perspire a little during the night — some more than others, especially if you’re going through menopause — this means we’re lying in our own sweat, which can be pretty uncomfortable.
So go for natural materials like cotton, which are breathable. They not only absorb the moisture from your skin but also release it by evaporation, keeping you drier and more comfortable. The same goes for your duvet and pillows. Choose a natural filling such as wool, silk, or down rather than synthetic.
88 ✦ Keep a blanket, slippers, and robe by the bed
We’ve established that your bedroom needs to be quite cool to help you fall asleep (around 65 degrees Fahrenheit). But, because our body temperature falls during the night, reaching its lowest at about 3:00 or 4:00 am, if your bedroom is too chilly and your bed linen too light, you may wake up around that time because you’re shivering.
For this reason, keep an extra blanket by the side of the bed that you can drowsily drape over you if you do wake up. This may be enough to coax you back to sleep. Similarly, if you wake needing the bathroom, have your slippers and robe within easy reach, to keep you warm on your trip to the bathroom.
89 ✦ Use a weighted blanket
A Swedish study published in the Journal of Sleep Medicine and Disorders found that insomniacs who were given weighted blankets to sleep under found it easier to settle down to sleep, enjoyed calmer, better slumber through the night, and woke feeling more refreshed.7
Weighted blankets are usually filled with plastic pellets to make them heavy. You can buy these blankets online and it’s recommended you go for one that’s about 10 percent of your body weight. It’s thought that the deep touch pressure, or evenly distributed weight, mimics the feeling of being hugged or massaged, helping raise your output of serotonin (which contributes to the production of melatonin) and calm the nervous system.
Best to check with your doctor before buying a weighted blanket in case it might interfere with your circulation or breathing. Or experiment with using an extra blanket over your duvet, for a similar effect.
90 ✦ Make your bed . . . but not first thing
A poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that people who make their beds every day are 19 percent more likely to get a good night’s sleep than those who don’t bother. It makes sense. A messy heap of tangled sheets and a lumpy duvet are uncomfortable. A neat, tidy bed invites you to sink into it. You choose.
So yes, make your bed. But here’s some good advice from scientists at Kingston University: don’t do it as soon as you get up.8 Instead, pull back the sheets and let your bed breathe. Allergy- and asthma-causing house dust mites thrive in our beds, feeding off the skin cells we shed and absorbing moisture from our sweat. If you make your bed as soon as you wake, you’re keeping the covers and the mattress nice and moist for the little critters.
So leave it unmade and let light and air get to the sheets to remove the moisture, so that the mites dehydrate and eventually die. After letting the bed breathe for a while, just make sure you make it and neaten it up before bedtime.
91 ✦ Create a biophilic bedroom
Biophilic design, which uses aspects of nature and the natural world, is a big trend in both architecture and interior design. It comes as more health experts realize how much our physical and mental well-being can benefit from our connections with nature, and that being cooped up all day in built-up artificial spaces such as offices and shopping centers can drain our energies and even contribute to poor health.
It’s easy to bring biophilic design into your bedroom to give both your well-being and your sleep a boost. Start with the basics and steer clear of furniture made from manmade materials if you can: go for wood instead. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2017 revealed that touching wood can slow our heart rate and reduce sympathetic-nervous activity — signs of relaxation.9
Hang pictures of nature on your walls. Other research has found that just looking at photos of green spaces such as woodland, grass, parks, and fields helps switch off the body’s stress response.10
And add some houseplants to the room to clear the air for better sleep. NASA’s “Clean Air Study,” conducted to find the best ways to clean the air in space stations, discovered that plants such as peace lilies and chrysanthemums are pretty clever when it comes to removing common household toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde (found in synthetic fabrics and paint) from the air.11
92 ✦ Be more lagom-like
Does your bedroom exude a feeling of calm, or does it scream “Chaos!” at you? Clearing out the mess and disorder of a shambolic sleeping space and applying the Swedish principles of lagom to your bedroom could be the key to getting better shut-eye.
Swedish living spaces emit serenity and order rather than chaos and confusion thanks to the lagom way of living, which roughly translates as “just right” — not too much and not too little. Though they are homely and welcoming, they’re never overloaded with unnecessary possessions or decoration. Because of this, Swedish bedrooms feel spacious, airy, fresh, and zen-like, inviting you to lie back and relax and melt away the tensions of your day.
Thus, you can achieve a more lagom-like bedroom by keeping the decor simple. Choose a neutral palette that echoes organic materials — try cool greys, beiges, and whites to create a feeling of natural airiness, then warm things up with soft cozy blankets, cushions, and bedding in similar hues. And keep decoration to a minimum. Apply the principles of lagom when you’re next out shopping — think: Do you really need to buy that item? Will it take up unnecessary space?
93 ✦ Declutter!
A cluttered bedroom can put you on edge as soon as you walk into it. Not only is that pile of papers or laundry a reminder of unfinished jobs that need doing, but being bombarded by untidiness can adversely stimulate your brain, raise your cortisol level, and even feel suffocating — as if the room is closing in on you.
A psychology study from St. Lawrence University found that people who live in cluttered environments took longer to fall asleep and experienced a worse quality of sleep than people who weren’t surrounded by stuff.12 So if you want to keep clutter in check, set aside an hour to do the following:
94 ✦ Keep your bed a sleep-and-sex-only zone
You’ve probably heard this one before — but here it is again, just in case. Keep your bed just for sleep and sex. You need to build a strong association with it as a place for rest, sleep, kisses, and cuddles only. But if you’re also using your bed to catch up on emails on your tablet, write work reports on your laptop, or watch an addictive show on television — all pretty stimulating things — that association with rest and pleasure is going to be pretty weak.
Remember: Your bed needs to be a refuge from rousing, thought-provoking, anxiety-inducing activities. A place to switch off.