Sleep Your Way to Wellness: Tips for a Restful Night and a Healthier You
Sleep is important, but most of us fail to understand the depth of getting solid, restful 7-8 hours of sleep how it affects emotional and physical wellness. Although there can be many reasons contributing towards bad sleep, one of the most common reasons is that the bedroom has not been designed in a way that promotes restful sleep. On top of that, social media and smart devices act as easy distractions, and people might find themselves scrolling on social media even after getting into bed. If this is the case for you, worry not as you’re not the only one!
If you have been finding it hard to fall asleep, you must work on creating an environment conducive to sleeping so that you can feel refreshed in the morning. This can also contribute to a happier mood, lesser stress, and a positive impact on your physical well-being. While you do that, be mindful of your interiors as well because they have a role in your sleep cycle. In this article, we will discuss some effective interior design tips to help create a conducive sleep environment for your wellness and health.
Keep reading to find the top tips to get a good night’s sleep.
Your Bedroom Sets the Tone
If you don’t set the tone to get a good sleep, you will not be able to achieve it. Your bedroom should make you feel comfortable and at peace. But what if you don’t feel like that when you enter your room? The answer is simple: you should revamp it. Try changing the way you’ve placed your furniture.
Or try a different paint colour, or consider adding low lighting when going to bed. Some people prefer wearing earplugs or sleep masks when they go to sleep. These are some practical ways to set the tone of your bedroom.
Take a look at the bedroom we designed for Pastel Hush @ Hougang. It has white paint with a touch of blue, giving a calm vibe. The way the furniture is placed amplifies the space, making it spacious. This will allow you to feel relaxed and composed when you try to get good sleep. You can even draw the blinds if you don’t like getting too much light.
Likewise, when designing your bedroom you should be mindful of the factors that affect your sleep.
Have a Routine
A routine is powerful – be it for sleep or anything else in your life. Without a routine, you will hardly achieve the results you aim for. Why? It’s simply because you haven’t trained your mind to work a certain way. This will create decision fatigue, stress, anxiety, and emotional imbalance.
This is non-negotiable if you want to get good sleep and rest after work. However, if you’re someone with impromptu tasks and a tough lifestyle, you might find it challenging to feel relaxed even when you’re too tired to move.
If you don’t have a proper routine, you’re most likely to spend hours on your phone lying on the sofa, claiming to rest. This will not only put you in an even more tiresome state but also push you to procrastinate.
Likewise, by the time you go to bed to sleep, you will not feel sleepy to rest. This is mainly because of missing your circadian rhythm. When you have a routine, your body will signal the brain to do the tasks accordingly by aligning with the circadian rhythm. When it happens, your sleep quality eventually improves.
If you want to ensure that your body aligns with your circadian rhythm, stick to a routine. Go to bed at a fixed time and wake up at a fixed time. Stick to these times, every day.
Incorporate 30 Minutes of Exercise
Finding even 30 minutes off your clock seems nearly impossible when you become busy with work. But think about the actual reason behind your work – what is it? Are you working to live or living to work? These simple words of wisdom should help you take time for yourself.
While it’s true that everyone should do some sort of exercise, if you’re doing a desk job, it’s a must for you! In fact, it’s considered that ‘sitting is the new smoking,’ meaning, it’s even more dangerous than smoking. This is why you should allocate some time to keep yourself active.
Exercising is helpful to get better sleep because your body gets tired. But that’s not all, you will actually feel lighter when you do any form of physical activity consistently. While helping you get better sleep, it will also push you to become a healthier version of yourself.
Usually, when you exercise, you will feel like taking a step further and eating clean because you sense that your body deserves better. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, a recent study has shown that people who exercise in the afternoon experience a low rate of early death and heart disease compared to those who work out in the morning.
In any case, you should incorporate some form of movement into your daily routine by considering your job, lifestyle, and other responsibilities. Remember, a proper morning walk also adds up to this!
Lighting Plays a Major Part
Okay, so lighting works in two cases, one is the light emitted from your devices and the other is your bedroom light.
If you’re someone who has no control over your devices, we suggest considering an “accountability partner.” This person should hold you accountable if you spend way more time on your device. Or you can make it a habit to leave your mobile in the living room or have a designated space for mobile phones outside your room.
Japanese Modernism living room
For example, look at our 1G Cantonment Rd project, it’s minimal, practical, and beautiful. But what we wanted to highlight is how they’ve added small shelves in the living room for both aesthetic and practicality. If you want to leave your phone before going to bed, you can consider having such practical shelves closer to your bedroom.
Now, the second lighting aspect is the overall lighting in your room. According to NIH, if you dim the lights, your heart will thank you, meaning it’s best to create a dark surrounding when you go to bed. You’re exposed to artificial and strong light throughout the day, and it’s only best to avoid it completely when you unwind.
Your body is encouraged to rest when the environment is dark, this is why we suggest our clients add blackout blinds to their rooms. However, there are many other interior ideas to get the vibe of your room to help your sleep cycle. We ensure to provide what works best for your mental health and overall wellness.
Discipline is Key
Is discipline really a tip to becoming a healthier version of yourself while also improving your sleep? Think about all the above-mentioned tips we’ve provided, do you think you can achieve any of them if you don’t have discipline?
The thing with discipline is that it’s challenging, and that’s why not everyone is a disciplined individual. You can see how sportspeople and businesspeople thrive and how they have strict lifestyles that they hardly waiver from. And that very reason is why they belong to the healthy category of individuals.
And if you want to become a better version of yourself, you should practice discipline. It can be hard at first; you’ll fall off the track when you try to build a habit or follow a routine, but try again, and keep going at it. No matter what, don’t think of giving up because your health and sleep quality are interdependent and you have no other option than to protect them!
Conclusion
If you have been struggling to get restful sleep and a healthier self, go easy on yourself because you’re not alone! Just because you’re not alone in this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it lightly; instead, you should consider implementing the above tips one by one.
It’s proven that your brain can’t accommodate a lot of new tasks and things at once, so start with one or two tips. For example, you can actually set the tone of your bedroom and it’s a one-time thing that doesn’t need a lot of effort.
It’ll be easier if you engage a professional interior designer in Singapore who can help revamp your bedroom to create a calming haven. At This Moodboard, we can help you create such a sanctuary as we’ve created calm spaces for many of our clients. You can take a look at the gallery of Singapore home inspiration to see how we do it.
If you want to discuss further, get in touch with us.
