Adults need to get between seven to nine hours of sleep per night, yet around 35.2% of adults in the U.S. manage less than this amount and almost 50% say they feel sleepy during the daytime various days of the week. One of the causes of poor sleep are unhealthy habits – staying up too late, using electronic devices until late at night, and drinking stimulating beverages like coffee or soda in the evening. However, another oft-overlooked problem is suboptimal bedroom design. If you are thinking of renovating one room in your home, choosing your bedroom is a wise choice in that good sleep will help you enhance your work performance, reduce your chances of accidents on the road, and help keep health conditions (including obesity and heart disease) at bay. The following tips may help you kickstart your bedroom renovation project.
Design Styles that Calm
Good sleep quality involves falling asleep quickly (within half an hour of getting into bed) and waking up no more than once during the night. This can be difficult to achieve if the color scheme in your room is vivid or if it comprises stimulating colors like red or bright orange. To enhance tranquility, opt for colors like blue, green, or lilac on your walls. Avoid start contrasts between walls and prints that are visible even when you turn out the light. Use blackout curtains, which will completely block out the light — rooms with too much light can contribute to wakefulness.
Improving Indoor Air Quality
Air quality affects sleep quality yet the EPA has found that the indoor air quality in many American homes is up to five times worse than the air outside. What is causing this toxic buildup? The answer is simple — the plethora of products we use, ranging from paraffin candles to spray-on skincare and beauty products, cleaning products, and pressed wood furniture. Everything from furniture binders to paint can reduce your air quality so remove these causes of pollution and embrace natural cleaning products, natural and organic skincare, and soy or beeswax candles. You should also ventilate your room regularly, keep relative humidity levels at between 30% and 50%, and ensure your bedroom is free of mold and dust.
Declutter to Destress
Rooms that are too busy or untidy can make us feel stressed, anxious, and depressed – as found in a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience (McMains, 2011). Therefore, if you have a room with various storage furniture items, books, papers, and the like, consider converting another space into a kind-of study or storage room. Your bedroom should be easy to walk through and it should ideally lean on the minimalistic side when it comes to décor. Watching TV is fun at bedtime but this device, too, should be kept outside so that you associate your bedroom with relaxation and sleep.
Most Americans don’t get as much sleep as they need to. If you are sleep-deprived, make bedroom design a priority so you can enjoy good sleep quantity and quality. Ensure your room is dark and quiet and opt for an uncluttered design style and calming colors that make it easy to feel sleepy as soon as you get into bed every night.