How to Change Your Bedroom So You Get Enough Sleep
Sleeping has become an issue in the modern age. Work stress, physical exhaustion, light pollution, and noise pollution have resulted in a silent epidemic of insomnia across the world. Up to 40% of adults in the United States are affected with insomnia. Among these, every one in five adults develops chronic insomnia, which can persist for years for even into a lifelong condition. Thankfully, there are some steps you can take to combat this. There is a ton of things in your bedroom you can change to make it a sleep haven for you. Getting high quality restful sleep is essential to ensure you stay fighting fit both mentally and physically. Without proper sleep, you can increase the risk of developing diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Keep reading to find more about how to change your bedroom so you get enough sleep.
Chuck the Screens
One of the many excuses people use to stay awake is social media. We transition from working on our laptops or desktops all day to scrolling through our screens at night. This is an unsustainable way to live life. One of the big reasons that screens are a problem is that they emit blue light. Blue light is a large spectrum of sunlight, and it signals to your brain that it is daytime.
If you don’t stop seeing this blue light, your brain doesn’t get the signal to sleep. This is why it’s essential to remove all screens from your bedroom. If you have a TV in your room, you should take it out and put it in the living room. Leave your laptops and phones on charge away from the bed. If you have tablets, make sure you keep them somewhere you can’t reach out to in the middle of the night.
Use a Weighted Blanket
Anxiety affects nearly 1 in 5 adults worldwide. This can lead to extreme restlessness during your leisure time as you lie in the dark and fret about things beyond your control. This nervous energy can even happen when you’re physically exhausted from a long day of hard physical labor. This is where deep pressure therapy comes in.
Deep pressure therapy has seen a lot of success used in a variety of settings. At home, you could use the same principles and apply them to yourself using a weighted blanket. How weighted blankets work is by having heavy glass or plastic balls sewn into them, giving them the weight. When you sleep, the weight of the blanket will put pressure on your body and calm you down for restful sleep.
Lights Out
Light pollution seriously affects our circadian rhythms. Diffused lighting has been linked to changes in urban wildlife behavior across the globe. A circadian rhythm is something every one of us has. It is the body’s internal time clock that tells us when to wake up and when to sleep. Just like blue light affects our circadian rhythm, so does diffused light. If you’re living in a densely populated area, you will notice a rise in insomnia among your peers because of light pollution.
To combat this, keep all chargers and modems out of your bedroom. The pilot lights in these devices add to the diffused light you already have in your room. Switch off all the lights in your own house, which can help diminish utility bills too. Invest in blackout curtains that will prevent light pollution from affecting your sleep in your bedroom. Ensure you take all possible steps possible that will prevent light leaks so that your bedroom is pitch black when you want to go to sleep.
Clean Up
Clutter induces the feeling of anxiety. Research has shown that a messy bedroom can negatively impact how much of sleep you get and its quality. If you have anxiety, it can also trigger your anxiety. Instead of sleeping, you’ll be thinking about how you should be cleaning up and how you haven’t gotten to it yet. You might even be overcome with the feeling of failure, and that will also increase your chances of developing depression.
Instead, keep your bedroom free from clutter. Take a weekend to organize your sleeping space and move as many things out of your sight as possible. Invest in drawers and cabinets if you don’t have enough storage space. Your goal is to have as much open space in your room as possible. This way, you can relax when you come into your bedroom. If your house is cluttered, your bedroom can be an oasis of calm that you retire to every night. You can be assured that sleep will come to you, and you will wake up refreshed.
