Think of your bedroom as a sacred space where you can rest and rejuvenate. It’s a sanctuary that allows you to leave all the worries of the day behind and just start over.
Of all the rooms in your house, the bedroom is where you consistently spend 1/3 of your day, and you’re in your bed for most of that time. If your bed is not conducive to proper sleep therefore, then this might be a tad of a problem.
Many of us have bad sleep habits that prevent us from getting the right quantity and quality of sleep that we need. But sometimes, our lack of sleep is actually caused by things that we take to our beds but shouldn’t.
Given that our bedroom should be a sanctuary and our bed should be a safe place, we should be very careful about what we take there.
Here are some of the things that don’t belong and shouldn’t be anywhere near our beds, but that we may be taking for granted:
1. Your mobile phone
We know, it’s tempting. And we live in a world where we’re so attached to our mobile phones, it will feel like a part of us is missing – at least initially. But you’ll actually be surprised at how liberating it feels to just be disconnected from every single notification and comment and message that our phone carries with every single buzz.
You go to your bed to sleep, not to check Facebook or browse through your emails. So turn off your phone or at least keep it out of reach.
2. Your purse
This is a habit that’s so common, it’s probably not that easy to break. For some reason, the purse just finds its way to the bed.
What we don’t really realize is how filthy our purses can be. In fact, it could be filthier than the toilet seat because before it lands on your bed, it will have been everywhere.
It’s best to consciously train yourself to place it somewhere else, like a tabletop or better yet, a hook.
3. Your work
Whether those are some readings that need to be done for school or your laptop with a presentation that needs a little tweaking, you should never allow work to land in your bed – ever. The reason for this is simple.
First, the bedroom is a place of relaxation and not of work.
Second, work automatically makes us anxious and jumpy, so even if you’re not actually working on it at the moment, the fact that it’s there keeps you awake and thinking about it all the time – which isn’t really conducive for sleeping.
4. Your pet
As tempting as it may be to cuddle with your furry friends in bed, you should avoid this if you can. That’s because no matter how clean you think your pet is, they could still bring with them some pollen or other nasty things that you wouldn’t want in your bed.
You could have an allergic reaction, or it will just attract mites and other pests. Your pets could also be very active, moving a lot and disrupting you at night.
So if your sleep is precious to you, you would definitely think twice about bringing your pets to your bed.
5. Your noisy bedmate
Anything that will disrupt your sleep should be banned from your bedroom, and while you can’t simply kick out your partner, you can at least explore the possibility of sleeping in separate beds.
This is especially true if your bedmate is particularly fond of snoring loudly at night. Motion can also disrupt sleep, so if your partner moves a lot you should consider getting a mattress that eliminates motion transfer effectively.
6. Food and drinks
There are plenty of places in your home where you can have a good, satisfying meal without having to worry about the consequences of leaving crumbs everywhere. Your bed is not one of those places.
Whether you’re eating a full course dinner, a bowl of breakfast cereal, some potato chips, or even just sipping a can of soda, any kind of eating or drinking should be banned from your bedroom. That’s because no matter how careful you try to be, there will always be crumbs and spills. With that come the cockroaches and the bugs.
7. Lumps and craters
Once you notice lumps and craters in your mattress, you should think long and hard about getting a better one. If you’re wondering what mattress brands are good, we would suggest looking into Westin, Saatva, and Comfortaire.
The quality of your mattress can affect the quality of your sleep, so you should make sure you have a good one.
If your mattress is getting lumpy or starting to sag (creating some sort of crater) where your body impression is, then the material is no longer as it used to be and that means your mattress is no longer giving you the support that your body requires in order to function properly.
