9 Ways To Turn Your Bedroom Into An Oasis For Sleep

As a Ph.D. diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine since 1984, I've devoted 35 years to the study of human sleep and clinical sleep disorders. And I've found that creating a bedroom conducive to sleep is one of the most important steps to getting the quality rest you need for your mood, physical health, and mental well-being. Here are nine key ways to design a sleep-friendly bedroom:

You can purchase an inexpensive “white noise” sleep sound machine to mask disruptive outside noises. A dark and quiet bedroom is especially crucial to night shift workers who must sleep during the day.

Your bedroom should be separated from the rest of your home to maintain a different association and function. For example, the walls should be painted a different, soothing color to reinforce the idea of rest.

Your bedroom should not be filled with magazines, papers, and electronic gadgets. That's because clutter is often associated with multiple functions, and the idea is to limit the bedroom’s associations and functions, not expand them.

It's important to make your bed every day so that you must draw back the covers at bedtime. This ritual also helps to associate the bed with very specific functions—sleep and sex. Do not eat in bed, watch TV in bed, or do any work in bed, as these activities are each associated with wakefulness, not sleep.

Be sure to purchase a high-quality, comfortable bed and pillows; it's an investment you will not regret! Keep your bed sheets, covers, and pillows to a minimum so that you're not constantly pushing them out of the way to get comfortable when trying to sleep. Choose a color for your bedsheets and covers that you find peaceful and calming.

And if you have a human bed partner who is disruptive, consider putting two beds together or investing in a bed that allows for the separate control of each side. This is another investment you will not regret.

If you get up in the middle of the night for bathroom trips, do not turn on overhead lights. Turning on your overhead lights sends a "wake up" signal to your internal clock. Use red bulbs—red light is basically invisible to our internal clock—in baseboard-level night lights to see your way to and from the bathroom.

You may find you sleep more soundly when you're nude with covers. If you are hot when you go to bed, you'll have a very tough time sleeping. This has to do with your body temperature staying too high for sleep onset to occur. Our body temperature has a 24-hour cycle that parallels the activity-rest cycle. Body temperature rises and peaks during the waking day to produce heat in support of activity and falls during the evening hours to lose heat in preparation for sleep, an energy conservation state. You must literally cool down in order to fall asleep—and a hot bedroom blocks that cool-down process.

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