There are a number of key components to getting a good night’s sleep; making sure to put electronic devices away in the hours leading up to sleep and avoiding caffeine during the latter half of the day is important. And, of course, the environment that you are trying to sleep in will have an effect on how easy it is for you to get to sleep and to remain asleep.
Creating the perfect sleep environment may well involve a degree of trial and error; the things that work for one person won’t necessarily work for others. Below are some general words of advice which will at least give you a starting point in creating your perfect sleeping environment.
Reduce Noise
Some people find that they just can’t get to sleep without some kind of background noise going on. If that sounds like you, you need to be aware that it could be impacting the quality of your sleep. You can fall asleep with sound going on in the background, but be aware that as you go through the various phases of sleep you will, at some points, be more susceptible to being woken up.
When you are in these phases of sleep, background noise that you were able to fall asleep to might inadvertently end up waking you. One solution to this is to set a timer so that after a certain amount of time the sound will stop playing.
Work Out Your Optimum Temperature
There are a wide range of factors that can affect our temperature while we sleep. Estimates vary as to the optimum seeping temperature and there appears to be a large amount of interpersonal variance. If you sleep near to a window, then this allows you more control over the temperature in the immediate area of your bed.
Overheating while asleep is one of the reasons that people have nightmares, and one of the most common reasons that people overheat during their sleep is because they use the same thickness of blanket all year round. In actual fact, it is best to switch to something lightweight for the winter months.
Set Up Your Bed Perfectly
This is the cornerstone of a good sleeping environment. Memory foam on top of a mattress gives an added level of comfort, but will set you back. It works out cheaper to invest up front in a good quality mattress.
However, choosing a good mattress isn’t as simple as some might think, due to an overwhelming range of different choices – if you feel like you might need a bit of extra help or guide, try checking out Sleep Junkie which provide buying guides and more information on the best mattresses available.
Eliminate Stress
The most likely source of stress in one’s own bedroom is their phone or laptop. Receiving a message or e-mail during the night can trigger an automatic stress response in our brains which increase our wakefulness and impairs the process of getting to sleep. If you have these kinds of devices in your room, then set them so that they remain silent and don’t vibrate, that way if you do receive a message in the middle of the night, you won’t be disturbed.
Creating the perfect sleep environment is the first step to ensuring that you get a good night’s sleep every single night.
