My friend Cat and I were talking sleep. Or lack thereof. We are two of the worst sleepers ever, posting status updates on Twitter at 5 am. Things have gotten better, however, since we made these home changes.
A really dark bedroom: Unless you're afraid of the dark (guilty!), pitch black is the way to go in the bedroom. Try: blackout curtains, shutting the door and firmly closing the closet.
White noise: While sleeping in a quiet bedroom may be a challenge (especially if your bedroom is on a noisy street), white noise can block the most distracting sounds. Try: a fan, a white noise program on your smartphone, or a humidifier.
Try a bedtime snack: The right foods can make you sleepy. Pick a light snack, high in whole grains. Try: a small bowl of pasta for dinner or an hour before bedtime (minus the cheese or meatballs), a handful of dry sugar-free cereal or granola, a piece of toast.
Water works: A bath before bed does the trick when you're a kid, and it performs just as well when you're an adult. It doesn't have to be a long soak to get you prepped for bed. Try: a 15 minute warm bath. For extra oomph, try a lavender soak and lower the lights.
Cool down: Even in the winter, turning down the temperature in your bedroom at night can help you sleep. Try: a fan works double-duty, cooling things down and providing sound-blocking white noise.
Extra blankets: A cooled down bedroom is one excuse to use an extra blanket, but you might notice that the extra weight also helps with your sleep. The same light pressure that soothes a swaddled baby helps calm down an adult's nervous system too. Try: An extra blanket or two. If you sleep with a duvet and don't need the extra warmth, try a open weave cotton blanket. It won't make you warmer, but the extra weight may help your nerves calm down.
(Image: Adrienne Breaux from Mark Macek's Modern Warm & Woodsy)
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Dont forget about the good old nightcap lol!
I thought this would be obvious: Exercise during the day helps me sleep at night.
When you said you were talking to your friend "Cat", I couldn't help but imagine you were talking to that cat on the bed :)
Your cat has a Twitter account?? :-)
@james manli, completely agreed!!!
Kicking out the cat that likes to meow in your ear at 4:30am. Also helpful.
In the winter, I highly recommend a cold room, a goose down duvet and a heated mattress pad. Turn the mattress pad on an hour or so before bed and turn it off before you climb in. Climbing into a warm bed is the most relaxing thing ever.
I thought one of the tips was going to be "get a cat" :-)
Try and bath with epsom salts before bed too - that will help you relax. No computer or TV in the evening, and no reading in bed. Boot out Cat or get really good earplugs (sorry, Puss!)
Can AT please ban the IPs of these annoying spammers!?
...having the most comfortable bed in the world helps! never scrimp on a great box spring/ mattress, great layering (4 inch memory foam and down - no feathers- topper), soft, high thead-count sheets! it is the "ahhhhhh" moment whether you are sleepy or not!
Yup, no screen time before bed.
I think I'm going to have to disagree with the cooling things down thing for myself, personally. I canNOT sleep unless I'm toasty warm, and I've actually woken up in the middle of the night needing to grab a hoodie to wear in bed.
What about some of that soothing music, like gentle rain falling, that's supposed to induce sleep? I saw on Apartment Therapy recently a list of relaxing music. I find a warm, purring kitty to cuddle with is relaxing. And I like clean, fresh sheets that smell nice.
Light-block curtains also help to block street noise. I press a rolled-up beach towel along the bottom of the closed door to reduce incoming light.
@RYTTU3K, I think the deal is that if the air temperature is cool for breathing and maybe on your face, being snuggy warm elsewhere helps you sleep. I don't know if that's the mechanism, but I do use my ceiling fan for white noise and air flow (and cooling, although the programmable thermostat really does most of that.) But I have a "faux fur" afghan that I cover my aching legs with (on top of the comforter) and that thing really insulates! So my legs are hot, my head and shoulders are cool, and it really helps.
I second the good mattress comment. Having a queen-sized bed all to myself has made a huge difference (no pun intended). Also, though I live in a tropical country I despise the heat. Thus, I have to keep the A/C on all night at super cold temps. I live in a fairly noisy neighborhood too, so white noise (in the form of an app I downloaded to my smartphone) helps A LOT. Finally, the snuggly, cocoony feeling of a good comforter is bliss... Big NO: having a TV in the bedroom. I do read before bed, though, but it does help me fall asleep. Oh, and my kitty, while allowed to play around the room when I'm reading, goes back outside to her spot in the living room when it's time for me to sleep.
Very helpful tips thanks.
I find that reading a book (not my iphone) induces shut-eye and helps me fall asleep by taking my mind off of whatever else might churn in my head to keep me awake. I sleep with earplugs because, although it's generally quiet on my street, I wake up easily to loud noises. I'm also training the cats that rough-housing with each other on the bed is not okay. :-/
my cat spoons with me and is the best sleeper. I sleep better with him around. Husband tosses and turns and will get the boot to the extra bedroom before the cat.
No clocks¡ (your cellphone has an alarm, why waste energy and have that annoying light and remainder of how late it is and you aren’t sleep already)
Have a good book (One that you can read over and over ) and read that before bed. I find that if I start and read a new book before bed I cant fall sleep, so I reread... short and children/young adult stories are a favorite of mine , happy endings mostly and not overtly complicated plots.
Put a piece of tape over the “on” light of ….anything that has it, if light really annoys you.
Have a big glass of ice cold water in you bedside table
A cup of chamomile tea.
If you have long hair, put it into a high ponytail
Here on Vancouver Island we have some great herbal remedies to help one fall into a peaceful sleep.
Off topic, I am so interested to read that the extra weight of blankets can help calm nerves much like swaddling a baby. I remember many years ago an old Love of mine and I came up with a great idea of inventing heavy blankets for cozy comfort not unlike the comforting reassurance we had both experienced with the x-ray vest at the dentist office. We concluded it must be connected to being pressurized and snug in the womb. So now I read that this is actually a fact! Ha! Little geniuses!
Cat, the cat, is adorable.
Yes, exercise is helpful, but I would agree that investing in a comfortable bed is a priority. I also use light-blocking curtains to reduce light and some white noise. I purchased a white noise machine that has several settings including the ocean, otherwise the humidifier helped during winter as well as the fan during summer, but I prefer falling aseep to the sounds of the ocean. I enjoyed snuggling with my cats too, but the ittle monsters would indulge in rough-housing with each other at the most inconvenient times, and one of them snores even louder than a person at times. So they had to leave at bedtime. Sleep deprivation is not a good thing.
I also agree about clocks being hindering to sleep. I have started turning my clock radio 90 degrees so the light is not bothering me (it also has a dim setting which I use all the time). And I have found some guided meditation or some relaxing music through ear buds on my kindle fire helps put me right to sleep...
Removing the tv and the lap top in fcat anything with a screen from my bedroom was also v helpful
good ol' lovemaking before bed always seemed to do the trick...
XIAOSHU2299 is a total salesperson. do your work on craigslist!
Applying moisturizer to my hands, legs, and feet at bedtime helps me fall asleep fast.
I love a nice cool room to sleep, but I hate waking up in the dark - so I would never try and seal out all the light! If it was dark when I wake up, I'm not getting out of bed.
Have a cat. Get him/her to lie close, purring. I challenge anyone to stay awake like that.
Rather than blocking the light out in the room - try using an eye mask. I work at night, and sleep during the day. The eye mask blocks the light very well, and still lets my cats have some sun in the afternoon.
I would also add melatonin for the regulation of sleep cycles if you have had a long term problem with sleep patterns.
Also setting up a sleep routine. If you do the same things every night in the same order, you teach your mind to get ready for sleep.
When you go to bed, do a simple breathing exercise concentration on breathing in through one nostril and breathing out through the other. Concentrating on breathing slows your mind down.
Also - if you've got worries that keeps your brain spinning - write them down, and then find something to distract you. Personally - I have talking books that I play on low volume. The joy of being read to sleep as a child is still available as an adult.
Many people can get in the habit of hanging out in their bed at times other than sleeping. If you reserve being in bed only for sleeping, then your body will become conditioned to falling asleep when you are in it. I started this years ago when I had trouble sleeping and I have no trouble falling asleep just a few minutes after jumping in bed.
I have enjoyed these posts. What works best for me is a room completely free of electronic devices. No TV, computer/laptop, telephone/cell phone, radio. Darkening shades a cool room, and excellent bedding is a winner. My bedroom is ONLY used for sleeping and adult fun!
I keep a notebook and a pencil by the bed for nights when my brain doesn't want to shut down. Writing all those random thoughts down gets them out of my head and allows me to fall asleep easier.
I second the white noise maker - I can't sleep without one. Every little noise keeps me up. My hippie doctor told me the best snack before bed is a small snack (like, 1-2 bites) that balances fat, fiber, and protein. For example, a couple of crackers with a bit of cheese and a little tuna. It helps me sleep because I don't wake up in the night hungry...
Also, re: the spammers - adding a captcha to the comment box isn't hard, AT, and would keep out the spambots.
Seconding eye masks, they really work! I was worried about waking up and freaking out with it on my face, not being able to see in the dark, but the one I have is pillowy, not he least bit tight, it blocks out light very well, but I can easily take it off or even see out of the corner with it on if I need to.
I got a great free app, Relax Melodies, for my phone that makes all sorts of soothing noises - ocean waves, rain, campfire, wind, etc. You can mix as many together as you want. It even has a sleep function, so i can turn it on as I go to bed and it'll turn off on its own.
Ironic about the cat in the picture. I love them, have 2, but they sometimes really interfere with my sleep. Unfortunately, given the set up of my apartment keeping them out of my bedroom is not an option.
@sherrybinnh, even that doesn't really help, though - I tend to get sore throats if the air is too cool (and yes, I breathe through my nose!). I've dragged the duvet over my head before because it's warmer like that. I guess it just varies from person to person?
I have blackout curtains and use an eye mask. Now I'm on night shift and can sleep no matter how bright it is in the room.
I think exercise definitely plays a role (but not right before bed).
Socks. If I'm having trouble going to sleep, socks do the trick.