Light control

You need some good black-out blinds, an eye mask or an extra pillow to throw over your head.  The worst is when your sleep gets interrupted by sunlight pouring into the room! Unless, of course, you don’t have an alarm clock.

Sound control

If you live in an urban area, a good night’s sleep can easily be disturbed by some drunk guys on the street.  Also, depending on the season, you might be woken up by birds.  A good solution for this is ear plugs.  If you’re like me and you can’t stand ear plugs, what about some white noise?  The sleep function on your TV or radio should do the trick, although some prefer a fan to keep the air moving and to drown out noise. As a last resort, a pillow over your head might work!

Calm surroundings

Do you have allergies? Consider getting anti-allergenic duvets and pillows. Sick? Try a vaporizer with scented oil!

Make sure the colours in your bedroom are soothing and make you feel comfortable and relaxed. It’s been proven that interior colours have a psychological effect and different colours affect people differently, so take note:

• Green: calming effect, reminds one of nature, luck, wealth, spring, earth, growth
• Red: intensity, passion, strength, romance, heat, blood, war
• Blue: non-threatening, confident, security, sky, tranquility, earth, enhances productivity
• Yellow: happiness, hunger, sunlight, summer, illness, warning, hope, mourning
• Orange: energy, enthusiasm, fire, playfulness, aggression, warning, danger
• Purple: nobility, sensuality, pride, mystery, arrogance, confusion
• Pink: flirtatious, gratitude, femininity, romance, joy, health

Good back & mattress

My grandfather was a chiropractor and my uncle is also, so naturally I’m an advocate.  I worked for a while in my uncle’s Chiropractic office and I know firsthand that some people wouldn’t be walking if it weren’t for him.  If your spine isn’t aligned properly, messages between your brain and your nervous system are altered and can sometimes be problematic.  Chiropractic adjustments can also help with headaches, muscle pain and overall health.

Your back will go out of alignment naturally – this is called subluxation.  One way to prevent this is by providing adequate support for your back and joint muscles for the hours that you are asleep.  For this, I love my memory foam mattress.  Memory foam is temperature sensitive polyurethane foam that has the ability to compress based on pressure but then slowly come back to its original shape, meaning that it keeps your spine aligned and neck supported while also preventing tossing and turning.

100% cotton sheets

I like a good bargain, so I used to buy cheap polyester and cotton mix sheets. I couldn’t understand why people would spend so much money on bed fabric!

But then I went on holiday in Egypt and subsequently bought 200 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets. It all makes sense now. Not only does cotton fabric breathe, but it’s a much softer material than polyester. It helps to regulate your temperature while you sleep by keeping you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Polyester is often used because it’s stronger than cotton, which is where Egypt comes into the picture.

The long fibres of Egyptian cotton make stronger, thinner yarns because the fibers within it are more continuous, which keeps the threadcount high and the quality strong. It’s been said that Egyptian cotton bedding gets softer with each laundering and it’s true – the fibres relax after laundering!

Keep stress-free

If you have a high-stress job or are under a lot of stress, it’s a good idea to get all your frustration out during the day so that you are in a relaxed state of mind by bedtime. It’s been proven that consistent exercise can help relieve stress, provide endorphins and allow you to sleep deeper, meaning you’ll need less overall sleep.