Good sleep is crucial for our health. We’re taught this at a very young age, and as you get older, it becomes easier to see how lack of sleep affects us. Whether you struggle falling asleep, staying asleep, or entering those sought-after deep sleep periods and complete REM cycles throughout the night, it all can make you feel pretty lethargic the next day. And no matter what’s on your schedule, feeling rested will make it much more enjoyable.
If you’re living in an apartment, it can take a little effort to create an environment that’s conducive to a good night’s rest. It can take a little research and a little thought into areas that could use improvement. Maybe you need an ultrasonic mist humidifier for easy breathing at night, or maybe you just need to clean your room. Read on for a few recommended ways to make an apartment more cozy so you can get the quality sleep you need to feel refreshed.
Drown Out Noise
A common culprit that keeps city-dwellers awake is the outside noise at night. Between seemingly nonstop traffic and groups of rowdy people walking home late, even closing your windows might not do the trick. But adding a rug or a tapestry might help a little.
Rugs have been known to be great soundproofers if you live in an apartment that generates a lot of noise, but many claim it works the other way around, too. Get a thick rug and place a rug pad underneath it. This may help dampen sound and create some insulation in your room, absorbing and softening some of the outside noise. And hanging a tapestry on your exterior wall is a tried-and-true way to stop a little of that sound from entering your room to begin with by absorbing the noise as it comes in from the outside. Plus, both of these items will take your room decor up a notch, which can also help you sleep. Read on and we’ll explain how.
Try a White Noise Machine
As long as you don’t need complete silence when you sleep, white noise machines are another popular way to combat the noise. Essentially, you’re just fighting off noise with more noise, but this noise is pleasant and chosen by you. A white noise machine can drown out the kind of sudden sounds that keep you up by playing rhythmic and consistent noises, and you can set them to transport you to a zen environment (the beach, the rainforest) or to just play one sound that’s consistent enough that it becomes a background noise for you while still keeping other sounds at bay. And if you have a quality speaker that you don’t mind leaving on all night, you can skip buying the white noise machine altogether and search YouTube or Spotify for white noise. There are plenty available for free that are either hours long or that you can loop all night.
Get an Ultrasonic Mist Humidifier
It’s easy to underestimate just how much humidity affects your breathing and your sleep, but once you start using an ultrasonic mist humidifier, you’ll notice the difference pretty quickly. Ultrasonic mist humidifiers can provide relief from cold and allergy symptoms that make your breathing labored and keep you up at night. They also can help those of us who regularly wake up with a dry mouth at night by moisturizing the air and therefore our skin, mouth, and throat.
Even if you don’t battle a dry mouth or constant allergy symptoms, you’ll likely notice an improvement in sleep quality anyway if you start using an ultrasonic mist humidifier; it helps your room maintain optimal humidity levels, which creates an optimal environment for sleeping, thus increasing your overall comfort as you fall asleep and throughout the night. Overall, it’s hard to understate the difference an ultrasonic mist humidifier can make in your nights of rest. You have to try it to see for yourself.
Put Blackout Curtains to Use
Blackout curtains can improve sleep both at night and in the morning. If you live in a city or even just have a neighbor that keeps a porch light on all night, they’ll make your room pitch black as you fall asleep. And many people are in a constant battle with morning sunlight, waking up as soon as the sun starts to rise and struggling to fall back asleep as the room gets brighter. Blackout curtains eliminate this issue, too, by keeping your room extremely dim (if not dark) until you pull them aside and face the day. Much like with an ultrasonic mist humidifier, you may not realize how much the issue is affecting you until you tackle it. And due to their thickness for blocking out all light, blackout curtains have the added benefit of absorbing sound, too, so you can kill two birds with one stone.
Room Decor &Chromatherapy
We mentioned it above with the rug and the tapestry points, but believe it or not, proper room decor can actually help you get better sleep. It’s called chromatherapy, and it’s a kind of therapy that uses color to alter moods. Some experts believe that certain colors in light tones can have a calming effect that helps us sleep better at night. So if you’re getting a rug and curtains, go for light shades of blue, white, yellow, green, or silver, if you want to test out the chromatherapy tactic. Research suggests those colors will be the most successful in fostering a calming environment.
Warm Lighting
Another way to create a calming environment for improved sleep is to ditch the bright white lights in your room for warmer, amber bulbs, and dim them if possible. Studies suggest lights that are too bright in the bedroom can actually have an effect on our sleep rhythm as our bodies struggle to differentiate between night and day. A quick swap to amber bulbs will make the lighting in your room warmer and dimmer, mimicking natural end-of-day signals and telling your body it’s time to sleep. This signaling is important for your body’s melatonin production and circadian rhythm, so don’t underestimate the power of a little mood lighting.
Keep Your Room Clean
This tip requires no purchases, just a little extra effort. Studies show that people sleep better in a clean room for a number of reasons. After a long day, one way to eliminate residual stress before going to sleep is to go to sleep in a clean room. You won’t be surrounded by a to-do list of things that need to be put away and cleaned, and if your room is clean, it suggests to your brain and body that the only thing you need to do in that room is sleep. Making your bed has also shown positive results in helping people get more restful and consistent sleep, as it further promotes a clean, stress-free environment for you to fall asleep in. Tricking your brain into being ready to sleep and stay asleep is really half the battle, and a clean room is one way to do it.
Conclusion
Setting up your apartment for better sleep takes a little effort. Like we said, you’ve got to clean your room. But it doesn’t have to be an expensive process; amber light bulbs can be found for less than $15 online or at most general merchandise retailers, and you can get curtains and other room decor at thrift shops or for a bargain online. An ultrasonic mist humidifier should be purchased new to ensure it’s clean, but that’s worth the investment. Know your style, make healthy life choices, and set up a bedroom that makes you feel relaxed. You’ll be catching up on Zzz’s in no time.