Unless you have an unusual sleeping situation, we spend about a third of our time in our bedrooms. However, many people neglect to consider the impact the state of the bedroom can have on their stress levels, despite taking excellent care of rooms that get less face time with us.
In a nutshell, most people treat their bedrooms like a storage space rather than a safe haven from the stresses of everyday life; this failure has a marked impact on the efficacy of our time spent sleeping. This article will discuss a few of the biggest culprits when it comes to changing your bedroom from a room of stress to room of calm.
Too Much Clutter
This one stems directly from the fact that we treat our bedrooms like a storage space; we come home from work and throw our clothes on the floor (as opposed to the laundry) because it’s quick and easy… plus clothes go in the bedroom anyways. Knick-knacks we don’t want to throw away? Bedroom is a good place to look. 10 million pillows that serve no purpose? Bedroom. You get the picture.
The trick to reducing clutter is to be vigilant about removing clutter, take the extra minute to place everything in its proper storage space to ensure that you always have a clean floor, and a clean conscience before going to sleep.
Guilt-Inducing Furniture
Most of us wake up and just go until it’s finally time for us to rest with people we enjoy; however, we are always thinking about work and things we need to do – 24 hours just isn’t enough. Naturally, having your workspace in your bedroom is a recipe for disaster. It’s reasonable to wonder why you aren’t working when you’re lying awake in bed at 10:30pm and your desk is right there, but that’s not going to help you get much needed rest.
Electronics in the Bedroom
There are numerous studies about the impact of electronics on your circadian rhythm, concluding that electronics hamper your ability to get sufficient rest; which is reason enough to remove them from the bedroom. A lot of us want to watch our favorite shows while we fall asleep (or maybe that’s just me), but the costs of doing that vastly outweigh its benefits. Watch your favorite shows with your favorite people in the living room.
Picking the Wrong Color Scheme
I won’t ask why someone received a grant for these studies, but numerous psychology studies have investigated the effect of color on the human condition. As you are intuitively aware (again, who gave the grants for this?), the wrong color scheme could leave people feeling uneasy rather than calm…. Which results in two very different kinds of sleep; stick with blue, green, and white if you want to help yourself relax in your relaxation rooms. You will also want to avoid bold prints and stripes.
At the Chernov Team we work smart and hard all day, this is because we understand the importance of sleep. While we understand the desire to over decorate your bedroom, the bedroom is probably the least trafficked room in your home; it’s a place for relaxation, not storage, experimental design, and millions of pointless pillows. This weekend, give yourself an hour to turn your horizontal dojo into a place of peace.