Nice solution, Maxwell!

Yes, I sleep very well in my bedroom. There'd be a problem if I didn't! Hmm, well my main goal in this Cure has been addressing my living room/entryway. My bedroom I was happier with to begin with. And interestingly, my bedroom has no overhead light built in - instead it has two wall sconces on opposite sides of the room, and we have two bedside lamps as well. So it is good on the lighting front. I feel like all we've been talking about is lighting for the last several posts! Let's get on to something else! I want some more Cure suggestions!

Goodness, I was very eager for this post. I'd love for them to be published a bit earlier on the day so that Europeans can read them during their evening.

I don't sleep rather well. It's a horribly draughty room and hopefully the bubble wrap I put up on three out of four windows will help keeping the temperature a bit higher, but normally I sleep with a winter duvet plus two wool blankets - with the radiator on max to begin with... I hate that the quality of my bed, other furniture and decorations don't have a say in this at all.

Light therapy for me is actually something clinical, a daily cure in bright light as part of fighting SAD. I have one of those extremely white lamps manufactured by the Finnish company Innosol; the model is Rondo. Many of them are rather plain and ugly so the look was a factor during the time of purchase.

Love the double frosta, brilliant!

thanks for the innosol hint, luftskibet. but looks like you have to save up for new windows.

I knew before my bedroom redecoration that the condition of my bedroom was attributing my poor sleep. I wake often in the night, felt restless, felt overwhelmed with the concerns of the day, felt uninspired and unsexy. It was as if my whole room was a huge "outbox" of stuff that needed to be gotten rid of, and the color of the walls and bedding made me cringe.

Since cleaning, painting, and getting rid of a TON of unneeded items, the soft gray bedroom, gray and white bedding, new lighting and furniture arrangements create such a peaceful retreat that I love bedtime and love to fall asleep in this new room. It feels calmer, restorative, and yes, sexier! I now leave the bedroom door open when guests come over, because I am so proud of how it looks, and secretly, I enjoy their envious glances into the beautiful room.

I really am sleeping better - the calming effect of the room, PLUS taking Maxwell's recommendation in Apartment Therapy to make use of melatonin (I found a nice herbal blend that includes that along with other ingredients like chamomile, lavender and valerian) to help fall asleep/stay asleep have made a huge difference in how refreshed I feel day to day.

Seriously wonderful!

I sleep quite well, but my bedroom could still use a major overhaul. Even ignoring the fact that my boyfriend has 200 cubic feet of clothing, there is still plenty for me to do.

Last night I took everything off my side of the bookcase headboard and put back only the things I wanted:
* a lamp
* two alarm clocks (one set for work, one to use for other purposes so that I don't have to worry about re-setting a clock for work)
* some containers with office supplies (I know it's recommended not to do work in the bedroom, but I love to)
* phone, answering machine, AT&T phone book, personal phone book (still need a memo pad to take messages on)
* tray of book marks
* one single book that I'm reading
* Spanish tapes and cassette player with ear phones

Sounds like a lot, eh? I moved out a bunch of books I'm deciding whether I want to keep, put away a bunch of books I had finished reading (and do want to keep), got rid of odds and ends such as receipts and lost screws, and dusted everything.

I had already dusted my ceiling fan a few weeks ago, but also cleaned and dusted the area around my clothes drying rack. There were quite a few books and clothing items on the floor there as well as a spare pillow. I found a place for all these things.

Still to do:
* declutter my dresser drawers and closet yet again--I've done this a few times now and am very close to having the right amount of things
* take everything off the top of my dresser, put back only the things I want, and find places for everything else
* repair a few broken parts on my dresser
* move my dresser and bed and vacuum under them
* get new sheets--I love the cheapo jersey knit sheets I got from Target, but they are starting to wear out; now that I know I like this kind of sheet, I want some that are made better such as having a bottom sheet big enough and tight enough to actually stay all the way on the bed.
* organize my clothes that need mending so that it is easy to do that while I am watching movies

(I am happy with my lighting even though we have only three lamps: one beautiful one is part of the ceiling fan, another beautiful one is in the middle of the bookcase headboard for reading, and brighter one is on the dresser so we can tell our black things from our navy things.)

I need to work on mine, but it's more about KEEPING it tidy than anything else as my desk is also in there as I have no where else to put it and it's the desk that's the messy part of the room.

That said, I need to just keep the clothes picked up too and get rid of the old PC that's in there (gotta find another spot for Im not getting rid of it yet), as colors go, the walls are white, with black and red accents, lighting is an off center overhead light, the lamp at my desk (an elbow clamp lamp) and two of the IKEA cord sets w/ the paper sphere shades, one on each side of the bed with the bed side tables being 2 black LACK tables, my dresser is in the closet as it's huge but is of standard depth, just wide.

I need to work on all that and add more artwork to the walls, especially above the bed.

As for sleep, it's hit and miss, and part of that is when I get too hot, or have a restless mind etc. Falling alseep is no problem generally and it isn't helping when the mid level futon I bought in 1996 has seen better days.

Oh, I should say that I love my room cool to cold and just snuggle under futon, blankets etc but I tend to create heat so often end up kicking off the excess at some point during the night and the memory foam pad I put down to help extend the futon's use for another couple of years keeps the heat in, not good.

And with it being that I live in Seattle, we are into the dark and dreary and the wet season and this fall so far has been WET.

i get decent sleep, but i definitely sleep better when my bedroom is more tidy and peaceful.

i have bedside lamps, but i'm having a hard time figuring out where else i could place a third light source. i don't have a dresser (or any other surface except a shelf with no outlet nearby). since the space is so small, barely bigger than the bed, maybe i don't need anything else. there's the evil overhead light, the lamps, the window - candles? yes, maybe the shelf needs candles.

i have a new (thrifted) duvet cover i'm very excited to put on my bed this week. in such a small space, new bedding will be a big change!

@In Everything: you're welcome! It takes some time getting used to the brightness but I find that it helps.

Oh and the flat is a rental whose owner doesn't give a rat's behind about anything. I'm allowed to basically tear the whole place down - on own expense. I painted all the walls while moving in and did some other stuff too, like clean an appallingly disgusting kitchen etc., then sent a list of it to him and never got even a thank you, so I decided that I won't put another cent into the place. The windows will apparently be switched to newer ones soonish anyway, but now my "office" has moved to the warmest place, the bedroom. So much for sanctuary :) But I did buy some fresh flowers yesterday though!