8 Ideas To Create The Ideal Sleep Environment

By Nina Sabat BscHons DipNT

Is your environment interfering with your sleep? If you struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep, or drag yourself from bed, exhausted, even after a solid 8 hours, these suggestions are for you. Check out these eight ideas to create your prefect sleep environment so you fall asleep quickly and wake up refreshed, every day!

Why do you sleep?

Why do humans sleep? There’s no one definitive answer to the question but lots of theories abound. You sleep because it helps you conserve your energy. Or because it provides the time to replenish your brain’s energy stores. Another functional role of sleep is for detoxification. So, you sleep to allow the time for toxic by-products to be removed from cells. There’s also the brain health aspect, as when you sleep the connections between the brain cells which govern your learning, memory, emotion and attention are strengthened and repaired.

On the other hand, humans might have started to sleep for a very practical purpose - to save their lives! Just imagine how many trips and falls and accidents you might have, if you were stumbling around in the dead of night.

While there may not be one perfect answer as to WHY you sleep, it’s clear that the act of sleep is connected to both your internal and external environment. Similarly, when you consider how WELL you sleep, your internal and external environment also play a part.

Understanding the connection between the two could help as you explore these 8 ideas for better sleep.

Eight Ideas To Create Your Ideal Sleep Environment

1. Get up and go to bed at the same time for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: ties in with the circadian rhythm

Internally, there’s a set pattern of physiological changes that governs your period of sleep. Known as the circadian rhythm it helps you to fall asleep, stay asleep and then wake up. The circadian rhythm, with its ebb and flow of hormones, is something that you generate yourself. That’s the reason why you suffer jet-lag when you travel to a different continent - your circadian rhythm is out of sync with the time zone that you’re in.

 Establishing a routine where you go to bed and wake up at the same time will help keep these rhythms in sync.

2. Turn off tech devices an hour before bed for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: relates to melatonin - the master sleep hormone

The cue to switch into ‘sleep mode’ comes from the sleep hormone, melatonin. Typically, the levels in your body rise and fall in sync with your environment. As the sun goes down and it gets darker, your blood levels of this essential sleep hormone begin to rise. Melatonin levels peak around 3am, a time when you are normally fast asleep. Then levels start to fall and as the sun rises they’re at the lowest. This drop allows you to wake up. 

Unfortunately, the blue-wave light from devices can interrupt your melatonin release. Which means if you work late into the night or scroll through social media in bed, you’re directing your body to stay awake. Switching off and unplugging 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime can help your melatonin levels get back on track.

3. Wear ear plugs to block out sounds for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: links with the 4 phases of sleep

Sleep is actually quite a peculiar state. Take a look at anyone who’s fast asleep and it would seem as if they were ‘unconscious’. But this isn’t actually true. As you sleep, your brain activity changes and enters into distinct patterns, or waves. These waves correlate to the 4 different stages of sleep. There’s Stage N1 - relaxed wakefulness, Stage N2 - light sleep, Stage N3 - deep sleep, and the fourth pattern of brainwaves - the REM phase of sleep.

However, here’s the curious thing. While you might have already entered one of these 4 distinct stages, you won’t always know that you are asleep.

In a landmark study from the 60s, subjects were monitored and woken up in each of the 4 stages. Researchers found that when woken from stage N1 sleep, only 1 in 10 people believed they were actually asleep, and the other 9 reported they were still awake. In comparison, when woken from stage N2, 6 out of 10 agreed they were sleeping while 4 still claimed they were awake.

So why did these sleeping participants think they were awake when they weren’t?

At both N1 and N2 stages, the ‘relaxed wakefulness’ and ‘light sleep’ stages, you are still quite responsive to external stimuli - a voice, an image on the TV, a car horn, a touch. This is because your brain exhibits brief bursts of alpha activity, amongst the theta-band activity which is common to both of these stages. When you’re in alpha you’re awake, so these visual, aural and tactile stimuli get noticed.

So, if you’re a light sleeper in general or noise disturbances make it difficult to fall asleep, ear plugs might come in handy. Blocking out sounds from your environment will help you pass undisturbed through stage 1 and stage 2 sleep so you can enter deep sleep.

4. Keep your room cool for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: links to your temperature regulation

Each night, as you sleep your body temperature is adjusted and tends to drop by 1 or 2 degrees.  Some researchers believe that this drop actually induces sleep. Cranking up the heat so your room is stuffy and hot will make it harder for you to cool down or keep cool, effectively interrupting your capacity to nod off, or stay asleep after you do.

For a better night’s sleep keep bedrooms a few degrees cooler than the other rooms. In winter, it can be helpful to open the windows for a few minutes before you get into bed, to let some of the extra heat out.

5. Add a black-out blind for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: relates to melatonin and the stages of sleep

This next improvement to your sleep environment can be a game changer for anyone who lives in the city or has a streetlight near their bedroom window.

Think back to the 4 distinct stages of sleep and how when you’re in the first 2 stages of restful wakefulness and light sleep, external stimuli can still be perceived. It’s not just sound that can disturb your sleep, but light can do this too.

In addition, artificial light can throw your melatonin release out of whack. If there’s a bright light right outside your bedroom window and your curtains or blinds aren’t strong enough to block it out, your body can react as if night-time has never come. Your melatonin levels don’t rise, so you don’t get the hormonal cue that encourages you to wind down and switch off.

Replacing light curtains with a black-out blind can solve the problem of external light interrupting your sleep. (If you can’t install a black-out blind but realise that environmental light is disturbing your sleep, you could try using a sleep mask (although they do have a tendency to slip off).

6. Swap daylight bulbs to red or orange bulbs for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: relates to melatonin - the master sleep hormone

Have you ever been on a camping trip and found that you had the best night’s sleep ever? You saw the sun set, then sat round the fire for a few hours watching the orange/red flames, then went to bed under a starlit, ink-black night sky. It does sound pretty dreamy doesn’t it? In fact, you might be thinking “Ooh, shall I dig out my tent?”. But this particular sleeping environment improver isn’t about heading out into the woods, instead it’s about the quality of light you’re exposed to.

The orange/red glow from the sunset and the camp-fire are strongly linked to the visual cues that would have, in times past, prepared you for sleep. Yet many bedrooms are lit with harsh white or yellow bulbs.

Changing bedroom light bulbs to emit more gentle orange or red hues can help differentiate between daytime and nighttime. This will give you stronger signals that it’s time to sleep.

7. Destress with a bedtime routine for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: relates to cortisol, adrenaline and GABA - the stress managing hormones

‘Stress’ can mean something totally different from one person to the next, but if there’s any aspect from your day or environment which is disturbing your thoughts or physical being, then it’s appropriate to call it a stress.

This can include physical pain from an injury, mental turmoil following an argument with a family member or tension following a conversation with your boss. Stressors can come from your surroundings - for instance trying to sleep in a cluttered room. Stress might also be caused by what you’ve eaten - a big meal late at night that you’re struggling to digest, extra caffeine from your third cup of coffee, or that big slice of sugar-laden chocolate fudge cake.

Despite the difference in these sources of stress, the body reacts in the same way. You churn out cortisol and adrenaline - the stress-response hormones that get you pumped for action. At the same time you deplete your levels of GABA - one of the key brain chemicals that help you relax and combat anxious thoughts.

Such hormonal changes interrupt your melatonin levels and can interfere with your stages of sleep. With such interferences you might struggle to fall asleep, get a bad night’s sleep or wake up feeling unrefreshed.

A calming bedtime routine can help interrupt these patterns and allow you to enjoy restorative sleep.

Need a new bedtime routine for better sleep? Then try:

• journaling to get any worrying thoughts out of your head
• sipping a bedtime tea - try drinking PUKKA HERBS NIGHTTIME TEA
• soaking in a muscle-relaxing magnesium bath - try adding BETTER YOU MAGNESIUM SLEEP FLAKES to a warm bath
• smelling a scent associated with sleep - try spritzing GRASS AND CO REST PILLOW SPRAY on to your pillow or sheets

 8. Add a supplement for a better night’s sleep

The science of why this works: relates to melatonin, GABA and adrenaline

If you’ve improved your environment and your sleep hygiene is at its best but sleep is not consistent or restful, then a well-formulated supplement to promote better sleep might be useful. Capsules are a popular choice, but you can also find powders which make a tasty night-time drink.

Key nutrients often included for their sleep-enhancing effect include:

• magnesium – the mineral for relaxing which works all night long, whether you soak in it (remember the stress-busting magnesium bath?) or supplement it instead
• sour cherry – an antioxidant and natural source of melatonin found to be particularly effective in studies of non-sleeping insomniacs
• lavender – it’s not just for smelling as ingested lavender also helps alleviate worries
• tryptophan or 5-HTP – the building blocks that help you make melatonin, naturally
• glycine – a sleep cycle stabiliser which can also help you keep cool if you get hot and flushed at night

Revital have a wide range of supplements and remedies for BETTER SLEEP but here are some recommendations:

Nutri Advanced Megamag Night Formula

Unbelievable Health Bee Rested sleep support

Viridian Cherry Night

Life Armour Drops Of Slumber

SUMMARY

Snuggling under the duvet and sleeping well after a long day is an essential not a luxury. Sleep is important to the body, helping you replenish your energy, clear out toxins, refuel your brain, and more. So, if you struggle to get to sleep or sleep poorly, this can soon take its toll. There are distinct internal and external cues which help you fall asleep, like a drop in temperature, a drop in light, and an increase in your sleep hormone melatonin. However, your external environment can interfere with this, interrupting your ability to sleep well. Fortunately, there are some science-backed changes that you can introduce to make your environment as sleep-ready as possible.

Blocking out light and sounds, keeping your room cool and having a regular bedtime are the starting points.

Next, having a wind down routine before you go to sleep, with muscle relaxing baths and scented calming sprays can get you into bed with no hassle or stress. Finally, a specially-formulated supplement, perhaps with magnesium, lavender or 5HTP, can add extra support and get your internal environment primed for sleep.

Now all that’s left for you is to have a good night, sleep tight and wake up feeling refreshed.

Reference

Harvard Medical School, The characteristics of sleep

About the Author

Nina Sabat is a registered Nutritional Therapist and supplement and wellbeing advisor at Revital. She loves exploring the connection between her studies in Neuroscience and Nutrition, especially when it helps her customers and clients unravel their personal mystery which leads to better sleep and improved health.