Earlier in life, sleep never seemed all that important. Until we develop sleeping issues. Difficulty nodding off. Waking up feeling tired. Then we start looking into tricks to help us achieve that sound and restorative slumber.
There’s no need to rehash the virtues of sleep (that’s another post). We’ll just launch right in. This post explores some of the things we find helpful. Right off the bat, the first thing to consider would be the most obvious: climate control.
Mood Lighting
With the basics of climate out of the way, the next thing would be ambience. Our solution was the Yeelight (currently a dated product). It has a simple elegance. A variety of lighting colours, bluetooth controlled. Most importantly, it can be dimmed. We prefer warm and soothing colour tones.
Aromatherapy
Diffusers propagate calming essential oils that may promote relaxation and sleep. We include aromatherapy because we’re aware it is helpful in calming severe nerves. In our case, we don’t (often) have severe anxiety so the faint scent of laundry detergent is enough since we’re not partial to strong scents. However, we did a quick Googling and some popular scents include: geranium, lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, bergamut, and cedarwood. We’ve yet to experiment and find our preferred scent, something to try!
Breathing
We came across this product by accident while browsing the aisles in a discount chemist. The best price we found was on Amazon under their subscription program. Not a bad option, having these delivered.
During the night, the nasal passage may dry and constrict, making breathing difficult. Should the sinuses become too constricted we may even resort to mouth breathing. Nasal strips open up the nasal passages, ensuring we breathe comfortably throughout the night.
Pollen Allergies
We launder our bed linen and dry them indoors. It’s foolish to dry our linen outside, coating them in grass pollen and spending our nights inhaling them. Additionally, we don’t open our bedroom windows. We open the windows to adjacent rooms and allow the air to diffuse through into the bedroom. We expect less pollen migration into our sleeping quarters in this manner.
Having higher awareness of pollen contamination goes a long way for those who suffer allergies, since it directly impairs the sinuses. Apart from bed linen, we also consider the clothes we wear to bed. We have loose sleeping attire which we launder indoors as well.
Bathing or showering thoroughly before bed purges the pollen caked on our skin and hair, furthermore we don’t make the mistake of wandering about outside to soak up more pollen. Bath, then bed.
Air Purifier and Humidifiers
Additionally, we have air purifiers in our room to filter away dust and pollens. Some purifiers double as humidifiers that regulate the humidity at comfortable levels. The humidity affects the dryness of our nasal passages. Especially when we operate air-conditioning systems for long periods on hot days. Air conditioners cool the air down, but also condenses the moisture out of the air.
On the subject of dust, vacuuming with HEPA filtered devices is a good idea.
Nasal Spray
This is good for flushing pollen out of our sinuses after a day out during the pollen-infested spring season. It’s also a good way to moisten the nasal passages for sleep. It can be used quite effectively together with the nasal strips. We add an anti-histamine on days of high pollen exposure.
The nasal spray treats the nasal passage directly and we find that it works far better than a humidifier.
Mattress and Bed Frame
We grew up on uncomfortable spring mattresses that press into the flesh. Then we moved to a proper mattress. It had layers of foam with different densities and a layer of pocket springs. A design intended to promote spinal alignment, essentially an ergonomic feature.
When we purchased our mattress, it came with a bed base – which was essentially the size of our mattress supporting it from beneath. The problem is that it didn’t have a headboard so our pillow tended to slide back if the bed wasn’t pressed up against the wall. When that happened, it would stir us from our sleep, forcing us to reset our pillows. We’d recommend a bedframe with a headboard. Forget the bed base.
Pillows
Memory foam pillows provide comfort and support. Nothing gets in the way of sleep like neck and shoulder pain. Our recommended memory foam pillow is the Dunlopillo Therapillo.
Blankets
We use multiple blankets and lay them over different regions of our bodies. We find our legs and feet tend to feel hot so we have lighter layers over them, while the torso needs more warmth so we have a thicker layer covering it. No need to make do with just one blanket.
Psychology and Habit
We make our bedroom a single purpose space – sleeping only. No work. No thinking. We get in, we sleep. As such, we’ve become conditioned to sleep when we climb in. No televisions, phones or laptops nearby. We don’t read either.
A while ago, we were amused by this fortune cookie:
Since we’re a disgruntled lot, we found this rather apt. The fewer grudges we hold, enemies we make, pipe dreams we cling to, the sounder we sleep.
Diet
No large meals in the 3-4 hours before sleep. Indigestion isn’t conducive to sleep. Stimulants like caffeine are avoided.
We eat a low inflammation diet, less refined carbs and sugars, more leafy greens. Rich salty and greasy foods in moderation. Inflammation means we feel slightly feverish in bed. The less discomfort we feel, the better.
Skin Irritation
The older we get, the more the skin deteriorates. It dries, it cracks, it itches. We didn’t need a skincare regimen in our twenties. However, from our mid thirties it became obvious that the irritation was getting on our nerves and detracting from our sleep. Moisturising is the key.
Overall
Human bodies are plagued with such wondrous frailty that we expect to contend with more issues over time. We’ll update this page when that happens.