It has been said that you need at least 8 hours of sleep per day. That saying may hold true for some people, but many of us can make it off of 5-6 hours of sleep and big cup of coffee.
Have you noticed, within yourself, how certain aspects about you change when you don’t get enough sleep? For instance, your mood, attention span, and energy levels; all can degrade severely without enough rest. Some people are light sleepers, where they can hear the tiniest sound and it will wake them up. On the other hand, others tend to be heavy sleepers, where a hurricane could wreak havoc in their living room and they still wouldn’t hear it.
Whether you’re a heavy sleeper or not, there are indeed factors that affect your sleep that you may not even realize. So we’ll take a look at some tips to keep in mind to make sure you’re not cutting yourself short on getting a good night’s rest…and remember, it starts at home with you.
Remove All Bills From Your Bedroom
I think we’ve all experienced the stress of bills…water bill, light bill, cable bill…you name it, bills can disrupt anyone’s thought process and especially disrupt someone’s sleep.
Your bedroom is supposed to be your safe haven, or even better, your relaxation oasis. Why go and disrupt your oasis with a $300 electric bill sitting on your nightstand, for you to roll over and look at when you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?
If a bill is the last thing you look at before you go to bed, then it is usually the last thing printed on your mind. So be proactive in your search for better sleep habits by removing any and all bills from your bedrooms.
Cozy Bedding
As mentioned earlier, your bedroom is your relaxation oasis. Just think, if your bedroom is your relaxation oasis, then what does that mean for your bed? Well, your bed is the centerpiece of the whole bedroom, so that means your bed is your ocean of dreams.
Have you ever went to bed and woken up the next morning with your fitted sheet off the mattress? I think we all have experienced that at some point. The cause of that can come from not having the proper size sheets on your bed, bad quality sheets, or tossing and turning (probably because you weren’t sleeping too well.)
We all have certain products or services that we will splurge on and then we have some that we can take the cheaper route on. For example, I am a laundry detergent snob; I absolutely must have Gain or Tide. The Great Value version just won’t do. But when it comes to something like pasta noodles, I can eat any brand. They all taste the same to me, but that laundry soap, I can immediately tell a difference in the quality of my clothes.
I’m a snob in the same sense when it comes to my bedding. Again, I cannot stress to you how important your bed is in the scheme of a good night’s rest. I not only love pretty bedding, but I love good quality bedding.
One of my biggest pet peeves was waking up in the middle of the night because my fitted sheet has come off the mattress. I’d have to get up and fit the sheet back on the mattress, only to not be able to go back to sleep.
So, to ensure a non-disruptive sleep, invest in a good set of quality bedding. I guarantee it will change your life, and probably your mood…all for the better of course!
Turn Off Your TV or No TV at All
Are you the type of person who has to have the television on to go to sleep? Or can you manage to sleep with it turned off or completely removed from your room? I somewhat straddle the fence on this topic. I can sleep with it on or off…it just depends on my level of exhaustion.
Ideally, the best move would be to have the TV completely removed from the bedroom. When the TV is on, you’ll want to keep watching a show, especially if it’s a really good show. I’ve run into that problem late night when rerun episodes of Sex and the City come on…it’s just so fun to get entangled in the misadventures of Carrie Bradshaw.
Now, if the TV is off, you’ll just be tempted to turn it on and watch a show if you’re having a hard time going to sleep. So, it’s a difficult decision to make, but you need to base your decision on what will improve the quality of your rest.
The Bedroom: Where the Magic Happens
The magic does happen in the bedroom, and that magic is called sleep. Sleep is such a rare commodity for most of us that when we do get a decent amount of sleep, we tend to oversleep to make up for lost time. So listen to your body and make adjustments to your daily life and environment to ensure a good night’s rest for yourself. Following these tips is definitely a step in the right direction in getting to your relaxation oasis, just remember, it starts with you.