Secrets to a Good Sleep Routine
Your bedroom is your oasis: it’s where your day starts and ends, and it’s your own personal space for relaxing and resting.
That’s why there’s nothing worse than getting a poor night’s sleep.
It feels like a betrayal to spend the whole night tossing and turning when your bedroom is supposed to be the place that’s free from work, stress, and everything else that comes with the day.
Unfortunately, many of us bring those stresses with us when we go to bed, and it can be hard to shake our daytime anxieties when we’re ready to rest.
Cultivating a good sleep routine can do a lot to make it easier to drift off into dreamland, and we’ve got some suggestions that will make getting forty winks a breeze.
Set a schedule
We know this one is tough, so we’re getting it out of the way first.
The best thing you can do for a good sleep routine is to actually set a routine: go to bed and wake up at the same times every day.
Of course, that’s not easy to do with so many changeable demands on your time, whether that’s getting the kids to school in the morning or binge-watching your favourite tv show in the evening, but the closer you can get to keep things consistent, the better.
This helps to set your “internal clock” to expect sleep at the same time each night, and lets you naturally feel tired at an optimum hour to maximize your ZZZs.
Don’t force it though!
If you’re a night owl, making yourself go to bed at 7pm is just going to cause you to lay awake for hours, so choose times that actually suit you—but do your best to stick to them to create your good sleep routine.
We love this elegant Chanel white range
Find the right mattress
Statistics show that most of us spend up to a third of our lives in bed. That’s why a mattress is one of the most important pieces of furniture you can own. If it’s not comfortable, it’s not doing you or your sleep routine any good.
So to ensure a good sleep routine, it’s important to start with a good mattress.
There are a lot of factors that go into choosing a good mattress—firmness, material, and size are a few of them—and the best way to decide what’s right for you is to test them out.
It might feel silly to be lying on a mattress in the middle of a furniture store, but it won’t feel silly when you’re sleeping comfortably in your own bedroom.
See our mattress buying guide for more in-depth advice on choosing your ideal mattress.
Find our mattress buying guide here
Create a sleep sanctuary
Your bed and mattress aren’t the only things that play a role in helping you get a better night’s sleep or creating a good sleep routine.
Everything in your bedroom can have an influence on how well-rested you are come morning.
Room darkening curtains and peaceful paint colours can create a space that feels comfortable and relaxing, and keeping the temperature of the room slightly cool tends to be more conducive to sleep.
We love soft neutrals and peaceful pastels to promote a sense of relaxation and help lull you to sleep.
Choosing furniture you love for your bedroom can also be a great way to create a space that you enjoy being in and that therefore lets you feel relaxed when you’re getting ready to drift off.
And try to reserve your bedroom for nighttime and sleeping only; we know it’s fun to lounge around on your bed during the day on a weekend, but it’s best to keep your brain associating your bed with sleep rather than activity so that when you lie down to rest, your mind knows exactly what to do.
Little Greene Paints, available in-store at Corcoran’s, offers plenty of soft and sweet paint options that are great for your bedroom. Contact us to learn more!
Stow the screens
Say no to screens but say yes to fun bedroom accents like this Faux Sheepskin Bean Bag!
On that note, there’s one thing you should be keeping out of your bedroom, and unfortunately it’s something a lot of us have attached to our hips from morning to night.
Studies show that keeping your mobile phone and other screens out of your bedroom is a huge factor in ensuring better sleep and not disrupting a good sleep routine.
Try putting all screens—phone, tablet, television, etc.—away 30 minutes before bed, and try to avoid reaching for them as soon as you wake up (unless you use your phone as your alarm clock, in which case, please reach for it and turn it off—your partner will thank you).
If you absolutely must use your screens in bed, switch them to “night mode” or consider blue light-blocking glasses.
Look at the big picture
Everything you do during the day can affect how well you sleep at night.
We’ve all had those times where you’re just about to drift off to sleep and then you remember something embarrassing that happened that afternoon (or when you were twelve years old) and suddenly you’re wide awake again. Dealing with the stresses of your waking life can make sleeping much simpler.
To find a good sleep routine, taking a holistic approach is also helpful: eat a healthy diet, get fresh air and exercise, cut back on caffeine. These things aren’t a guaranteed insomnia cure-all, but they do make a difference.
We know that in today’s busy lifestyle, it’s difficult to make the time to do what you need to improve your sleep, but even implementing one or two of these suggestions can really help to create a good sleep routine that will have you feeling awake and refreshed each morning.
Sweet dreams!
The Leonel range is one of our favourites for a relaxed yet contemporary bedroom look