Bedroom design ideas

These bedroom design ideas will help you to create the ideal sleep environment that induces a feeling of calm and restive state.

Temperature

The ideal temperature for sleep is 18 – 21 degrees Celsius, so depending on your location, does your room need a fan, heating or air-conditioning? Air flow is also important. Opening your window, even just a crack, will allow fresh air to circulate while you sleep.

Your bed

Your choice of bed has a huge impact on the quality of your sleep. Mattresses have a 7 to 8 year life. Does yours need replacing? Your bed should be comfortable and suit your body’s requirements. The same with your choice of pillow, though these have a much shorter life than mattresses. Think of all that drool…

Your choice of bed linen will also affect your sleep. Scratchy blankets and a quilt or doona that isn’t warm enough (or is too warm) won’t offer you a restful sleep.

Bedroom furniture

Symmetry and balance

We all like things to be balanced and ordered. To create a harmonious bedroom space, place a small bedside table or drawers on both sides of the bed. Nice and symmetrical. Drawers are great for hiding away the clutter and if the things you need before or during the night are nearby, you won’t have to get out of bed to retrieve them. This means you can avoid that waking feeling as you stumble around looking for your glass of water.

Eliminate clutter from your sleep environment. Do you have enough storage in your bedroom and wardrobe? Can you clear things away and invest in some clever storage? Sleep experts also say that bedrooms should only be used for sleeping and sex, so get and keep your TV and laptop out of there.

Plants and other things from nature, and pictures of the natural environment may also help you sleep better.

Light and lighting

You need thick, dark curtains that will block out daylight and other environmental light such as street lights. If you have already invested in drapes, you can add block-out curtain liners behind your drapes for extra darkness.

Sleep experts suggest that to get a good nights sleep you need to sleep in the darkest possible room.

Warm, ambient light suggests to our bodies that the sun is setting and it’s time to get ready for sleep. The blue light our LCD screens emit suggest daylight, so you may find it harder to fall asleep if you attempt to sleep straight after working on your laptop, watching TV or using your phone. Blue light shifts your body’s natural circadian rhythm. Try turning off any blue light an hour before bedtime and use lights from the warm colour spectrum such as lamps with a warm yellow, gold or red light. A 2012 study found that 2 hours of iPad use before bed decreased melatonin levels (the sleep hormone) by a whopping 23%!

Get rid of or turn off any appliance that gives off light or blinks.

Colour

Cool colours such as blues, greens and greys are believed to reduce your heart rate, lower blood pressure, and promote better sleep. Specifically, muted and pastel shades of blues and greens work best for inducing a calm, restful state. Avoid warm colours such as reds, oranges and yellows as these are said to increase the heart rate, deepen your breathing and increase your blood pressure. Not a great combination for inducing a sleepy state.

Sound

White noise or some kind of continuous background noise can block out other noise and make sure you have a more restful sleep. I use an air filter in my bedroom and it provides just enough white noise to dull other household and outdoor sounds that it helps me to sleep. You could use a fan or download a white noise app and set the sounds of a flowing river or waterfall as your background noise.