Sheet Happens: Bedroom Fixes to Fall Asleep Faster

Getting A Good Night's Sleep

Installment 3 of 4: Fixes to Fall Asleep Faster

Some bedrooms encourage rest. Others encourage staring at the ceiling. If yours leans toward the latter, let’s fix that today. Here are a few simple changes that will help you fall asleep faster. 

Light is the enemy of sleep. Your brain sees one tiny ray of sunshine or twinkling city lights and immediately decides it’s time to pay bills, worry about your cholesterol, and remember embarrassing things you said in 1993. Installing blackout curtains can help settle your active mind at bedtime. They block light, reduce noise, and make your room so dark that you might wonder if you accidentally walked into an abandoned gold mine.

But while blackout curtains are blocking outside light, your bedroom should have soft warm lighting to help you find your way at bedtime. Dim lighting signals your brain that it’s time to wind down. Use bedside lamps to light your way at the end of your day and always choose warm colored bulbs for bedside lamps to soften the environment. If your bedroom lighting resembles a hospital operating room, try again, if you look like you’re about to tell a ghost story, you’re doing it right.

Keep your bedroom cool at night to avoid it feeling like a sauna. The ideal sleep temperature is around 65°F. That may sound a bit chilly for some, but it has proven to work. A cooler room helps your body naturally wind down. 

Another important consideration is your mattress. A cooling mattress helps you fall asleep faster because it tackles one of the biggest biological hurdles to drifting off. Your body needs to drop its core temperature slightly before sleep can begin. If your bed traps heat, your body has to work harder to cool down, which delays that natural “sleep switch.” And because many models use gel, breathable foam, or phase‑change materials that stay cooler throughout the night, they can prevent overheating during the night that can cause people to wake up. This temperature regulation also supports more frequent and prolong deep sleep which is critical to feeling well-rested in the morning. 

Even if you are not in the market for a new mattress, you can take steps to regulating temperature at night with cooling sheets. Look for breathable fabrics like bamboo, eucalyptus, or cotton percale. And don't skimp on quality. Knowing a luxurious bed is awaiting you might be just what you need to stop falling asleep on the sofa. 

If your pillow is older than your adult children, it’s time to consider an upgrade. Whether you’re a back sleeper, side sleeper, or someone who falls asleep in whatever position your pet leaves available, there’s a pillow designed for you. Ergonomic, cooling pillows support your neck and spine, so you don’t wake up feeling like you slept inside a pretzel. That said, we know that there is nothing more personal that your pillow, so be sure to fully considering your options, gel foam or latex foam, and each of these comes in solid block or shredded, or even mixed materials.  Choosing a cooling pillow that matches your preferred sleep position and firmness can make a noticeable difference in how quickly you fall asleep.

For some people, weighted blankets have become a modern-day miracle. They single handedly calm the nervous system and help you fall asleep faster. It’s like being gently hugged by a very polite bear. Choose a weight that’s about 10% of your body weight. Too light and it’s pointless. Too heavy and you’ll feel like you’ve got an elephant sitting on your chest. Plus, now that you have reduced your bedroom temperature and added a cooling mattress, sheets and pillow, there is no need to worry that a weighted blanket will cause you to overheat like a baked potato.

Some people need silence to sleep. Others need a gentle hum to drown out the neighbor’s dog, the refrigerator making that weird noise again or even your own thoughts. A white noise machine creates a soothing soundscape that helps your brain power down and overpowers the conversations you are replaying in your mind from 20 years ago. Consider a dedicated white noise machine or use a smart speak and ask it to play your favorite nature sounds for 10 minutes as you fall asleep. 

And finally add a diffuser or pillow spray with calming scents like lavender or chamomile that help your brain shift into sleep mode. Just avoid anything too strong unless you want your bedroom to smell like a candle store exploded under your bed.

A calmer, cooler, quieter bedroom won’t solve everything, but it will make falling asleep feel a whole lot less like a full-time job you forgot to quit.  For more details, we have placed website locations to all of our recommended products in the Description of this video. So go ahead close the blackout curtains, launch the sounds of a waterfall and prepare your soothing bed so you can fall asleep before your head even hits the pillow and ... BFore Aging in Place.