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The bedroom is supposed to be a place of pure relaxation. It’s supposed to be a place you can get your head down, have a good sleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. You should go to your bedroom when you feel like relaxing; no other room should do! Unfortunately, there are so many people who don’t feel like this when they wake up in the morning. They feel groggy, and not ready to get up for the day ahead. This can be due to a number of different reasons, from what is kept in the room to the color of the room. A lot goes into creating the perfect bedroom! This guide will help you to create the perfect bedroom for sleep and relaxation:
Make Sure the Walls Don’t Stimulate You Too Much
The walls are the largest element of a bedroom. Depending on how you decorate them, they can either stimulate you or relax you. If you have exciting murals on the wall in technicolor, this could be the reason you aren’t sleeping as well as you could. Bright colors can be fun, but you should keep them to other rooms of the house! Even if you just have a bright color on the wall, this can stop you from sleeping as well. Make sure your walls aren’t too stimulating at night time.
Choose a Relaxing Color Scheme
In general, there are some color schemes that will relax you and others that won’t. You may have white walls, but if you have red elements all over your bedroom, you might feel more awake at night time. Cooler colors are the absolute best colors for relaxing and getting a good night’s sleep. Colors like blue and green are perfect. It’s up to you if you want to paint the entire walls, use wallpaper, or simply include accessories in cool colors to create the look you’re after. You can use a color wheel if you’re confused as to which colors look best together.
Keep Electrical Items Out of the Bedroom
Having electrical items in the bedroom really can disrupt sleep. You may have heard this one before, but it’s true! Having TVs, phones, tablets, and other distractions in the bedroom can make your brain associate the room with things other than sleep. Not to mention the light from these objects can disrupt the sleep pattern too. If you use them before bed, your melatonin levels will lower by up to 23%. You’re basically waking yourself up and disrupting your natural sleep pattern! If you struggle to sleep, you could listen to soft, relaxing music. Maybe read a physical book rather than an e-book on a bright screen.
Make Sure Your Bed is Suited to You
If your bed isn’t suited to you, then you can hardly expect to sleep soundly at night. If you sleep with a partner, then you may need to compromise a little. You might want to do a bit of research on the top mattresses for 2016 to start you off. Your mattress shouldn’t be too hard or too soft, as you can create back problems. However, what is soft to one person may feel hard to another, so bear that in mind. You should also make sure you have the right type of pillows and quilts to keep you just the right temperature.
Stay on Top of Bed Maintenance
Make sure you’re staying on top of maintenance when it comes to your bed. Some mattresses need flipping regularly, so make sure you keep to a schedule. Otherwise, you could end up flattening your mattress in all of the wrong places. Not only that, you should actually replace your mattress with a new one every 8 years. Don’t put it off, or you could begin to cause problems for your posture and spine. Even if you think your mattress is fine, you shouldn’t risk it if you’ve had it a long time.
Install Heavy Curtains
Heavy curtains will help you to keep the light from outside out. Every sleep expert is in agreement that you need total darkness to sleep soundly at night. You don’t want any distractions in the form of street lamps or something similar. You could even go for blackout blinds if you prefer.
Add Plants and Other Natural Elements
Having natural elements in the bedroom are thought to help people relax too. You can have plants, and even pictures of plants to help you wind down and relax. Any pictures or canvases that are of natural elements that you find relaxing can be included in your bedroom. Looking at these pictures should make you feel calm and ready to sleep! The art of feng shui recommends you avoid keeping actual life in your bedroom, so it’s up to you if you want a real plant in there or not. Most of the time, having pretty natural pictures should have the same effect. Some people think feng shui is a load of rubbish, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about some of the points it makes. For example, it says you shouldn’t have a mirror facing the bed as it bounces energy back to you.
Eliminate Clutter
Having clutter in the bedroom can make you feel uneasy and wide awake. Don’t put off getting rid of that clutter. As soon as you get the opportunity, tidy things up and get rid of the things you don’t need. Maybe put some of it into storage. Having lots of clutter around the bedroom is bad for your health, so don’t let it go on for too long. A minimalistic bedroom is best if you want a good night’s sleep.
Create Symmetry in the Room
Apparently, experts say that symmetry can create a peaceful feeling in the bedroom, allowing us to relax more. By making the effort to buy matching pairs where possible and create a symmetrical look, you could sleeping and relaxing better in no time at all. This isn’t always possible, so just do what you can to the room to make it look nice and even. Lay it out in a way that makes you feel nice and relaxed. Not necessarily the way other people think is best!
Get a Progressive Alarm
Instead of having an alarm clock that abruptly wakes you from your slumber, get a progressive alarm that gently wakes you up. You can buy alarm clocks that will stimulate a sunrise and sunset, helping you to wake up far more naturally than with a loud noise. It’ll be well worth the investment to have one of these on your bedside table. Just make sure you face the alarm enough away from you that if you wake in the night, you won’t spot the time. Looking at the time during the night is enough to kick you out of your sleep for a while. You should be able to drift back off fairly easily without looking at the time.
Use Warm Lighting
Warm lighting can help you to get into a more relaxed space, if you’re doing something that requires light in the bedroom. Maybe you want to settle down and read a book. Any form of blue lighting in the bedroom will keep you awake. Making sure the bulbs you use are warm will help you to get a better quality of sleep.
Use Scent to Relax You
Did you know that scent in the bedroom can relax you too? Scents such as lavender can make you drift off to the land of slumber much sooner. You can use candles and incense if you want to create a relaxing atmosphere, but they shouldn’t be used while you’re trying to sleep. If you want to use something while you sleep, a pillow or room spray is your best bet. Of course you can use other things to help you drift off, but pillow and room spray is one of the most natural solutions.
Lower the Temperature of the Room
The temperature of the bedroom can seriously make a difference to how well you sleep at night. Did you know that your body temperature needs to fall for you to drift off nicely? You can do this by lowering the temperature of the room, maybe crack a window slightly. You can even keep your feet out of the duvet, as some experts recommend. Although this has nothing to do with your bedroom, taking a hot bath before bed can lower your temperature nicely too.
All of these tips when used together will help you to create the perfect bedroom for sleep and relaxation. If you ignore any of them, don’t be surprised if you find it hard to drift off at night time. Use as many as you can as soon as possible and you’ll notice a huge difference in the quality of your sleep. Leave any tips that have worked for you in the comments if you like. Sleep well and I’ll see you soon!
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