Last updated on April 28th, 2023 at 04:25 pm
Sleep apnoea treatments such as your CPAP machine might not be the only thing that could help you to get a brilliant night’s sleep, and we’ve all had those nights when you can’t just drop off – you toss and turn, and watch the alarm clock as the hours slowly count down to the time when you have to get up again, it can be awful! The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School have done some research in to this, and according to them the perfect sleeping environment is “A quiet, dark and cool environment can help promote sound slumber.” But making that happen can be difficult, so follow these excellent tips, and get the perfect sleep.
Staying the right temperature
Keeping cool is very important when you are sleeping. Between 16 to 18 degrees Celsius is the recommended temperature for your thermostat. Keeping the bed cool is equally important; there’s no point in piling your bed with duvets and blankets right after chilling your room! Use a lightweight duvet instead of traditional blankets. This will allow easy temperature control by being able to uncover yourself a bit, or stick an arm or leg out which will cool your overall body temperature, sort of like an organic heat sink. In the winter try having a breathable cotton blanket over your duvet, but one that is not tucked in – this will allow you to easily throw it off the bed if you get too hot.
Darkness
Back in cave-man times, the nights were pretty dark, and the days were pretty light. It’s only in this modern age now we have artificial lighting and artificial darkening that we find our sleep schedules slightly messed up. At night be sure to keep a dim bedside lamp and not one of those cornea-searing white –light, 400 watt spotlights that a lot of people deem appropriate for the bedroom these days. Think cosy fire rather than search-party. Secondly, block out light once you turn the lights out, creeping light from the neighbours security lamp and from the landing light under your door do nothing to keep you in a solid state of slumber. Thick curtains and a turning off all the lights in your place at night will solve this.
Keep it quiet. Or noisy. One of the two.
The calming sounds of washing machines, televisions, and road works are not the best things to keep you asleep. Sudden and variable sounds put your brain on ‘alert-mode’ meaning that you move to a shallower level of sleep in case that sound is a danger. Double glazing, rugs, carpets and upholstered furniture will to wonders in absorbing the noises from the outside world. Alternatively, white noise can be very beneficial sleep-wise. White noise is a constant noise containing all frequencies of sound wave, this does an amazing job of drowning out other sounds, without being disruptive by itself. Imagine shining a torch in a well lit room; you can’t see the beam. Same thing with white noise.