Best Sleep Ever

We all know a good night’s sleep has an enormous impact on our health and daily lives.  We also all know most of us don’t get enough of it. One of the best ways to ensure you want to get to bed on time is to turn your bedroom into a bastion of restfulness – your fortress of sleepitude. Here’s our strategy guide for turning your bedroom into the most inviting room in your home.

Set the Mood

The proper mood is essential for any room, and your bedroom should set the kind of mood that makes it the most relaxing room in the world for you.

• Instead of lighting the room with a ceiling light, buy a nice bedside light in the color you find most relaxing.  Most people find a warm yellow or orange light relaxes them best, but if you love purple, go for purple.

• Eliminating light from devices is key to keeping the mood restful.  This means you need to kick backlit screens, like phones and TVs, out of the bedroom.  If you can’t do without those devices, though, you can get reduce the type of sleep preventing light they emit using a program like f.lux.

• A diffuser with essential oils, or even a few drops on a tissue placed under your pillow, will do wonders at creating a serene and peaceful atmosphere.  We’d specifically recommend lavender, which is great at promoting sleep.

• A fuzzy floor rug next to your bed makes it so much easier to get up in the morning, especially if you have hardwood floors in your bedroom.  Greet the day comfortably with some fuzz under your feet instead of with a cold, wooden floor.

Get the Proper Gear

Sleeping is serious business, and you’ll need some serious gear for serious sleeping.

• People underestimate how much what they wear impacts their sleep.  Unless you’re the type to wear your finest birthday suit to bed, invest in some loose, comfortable pajamas – while a giant T shirt can be good, MYK has a great line of silk pajamas that are even better.   
• While proper bedroom lighting is essential to put you in the right state of mind for sleep, some people struggle with having any light at all in the room – if you’re one of those people you should definitely invest in a sleeping mask.  A silk sleeping mask is best, since it will also do wonders at keeping the area around your eyes moisturized and prevent compression wrinkles.  

Dress Your Bed for Success

Your bed’s look is pretty important, but even the best looking bedding won’t help you sleep if it feels like sleeping on hot cardboard.  

• Great sheets are essential – you want ones that’ll keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer, but are also smooth and comfortable.  Silk or linen sheets both work well here, and since they both have a naturally wrinkled look, it comes with the added bonus of not having to try as hard when you make your bed - you can tell everyone it’s supposed to be that way.
  

• Cotton sheets are a good budget pick, but whatever you do, make sure to stay away from sheets made out of artificial fabrics, as they are stuffy and can make allergies worse

• Using your sheets to make hospital corners are a great way to make your bed a lot more snuggly, almost like your bed gently holding you.  They’re not actually difficult to do, and there are tons of video tutorials all over the web.

• A good mattress topper can help make up for any shortcomings in your mattress – get a soft one if you have an extra firm mattress, and get a firm one if you want to add a bit of support to a particularly soft mattress.

• A soft comforter is another big one: comfort-wise, down is the best, but it’s a bit expensive and many people are allergic to down.  Instead, we recommend a good down alternative comforter: the feeling is almost the same, but they’re much less expensive and won’t leave anyone sneezing.  There is a downside, though. Down alternatives doesn’t trap heat as well as the real thing.

• While it’s common knowledge that more pillows = better sleep, make sure you vary the material and size of the pillows – arrange them right, and you’ll be turning your bed into a cozy pillow den.

• A silk pillowcase will do wonders for your hair and skin, and is also much cooler at night.  It’s mostly important to have your main face pillow silk. While here at MYK we’d love it if you bought 9 pillowcases and covered everything in silk, throwing in some faux fur or textured pillows can enhance the look and feel of your bed.

• Lastly, regularly wash your bedding: clean sheets will actually make your bed feel softer!