Styling Your Room for Better Sleep – The Vegan Way

As a vegan, you’re likely to have less trouble sleeping than the rest of the population thanks to the many plants containing helpful nutrients that aid sleep. Bananas, kale, oats and almonds are high in tryptophan, magnesium, calcium and potassium – all essential for helping our bodies to relax and achieve a deep sleep state.

It is essential that you follow the bedroom decor that enhance your mood.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t forget about your surroundings, a busy bedroom that includes blue light and energetic colors like reds and oranges can combat the dietary benefits a vegan enjoys. Below are some tips for styling your bedroom for better sleep, the vegan way.

Declutter your sleeping space

Being surrounded by work papers, half-finished projects and the blue light from a TV and other electronic devices increases stress, making it hard to get to sleep. Blue light, for those unaware, is light that emits blue wavelengths that boost reaction times, attention, and mood. This is great during the day because the light can help you feel more awake and productive. At night, however, this type of light can really disrupt your sleep and lead to fitful rest instead of the quality, uninterrupted hours you need in order to live healthily.

In addition to blue light, a cluttered space is an emotionally exhausting space. That’s one of the reasons why it’s a good idea to keep your bedroom as clean and minimal as possible. To help improve your sleep, remedy both the blue light issue by removing electronics as necessary and address the clutter, too. Remove unnecessary items from your bedroom and try to keep the space dedicated to sleeping. A clear, spacious and calm space is more conducive to a good night’s rest.

Minimize noise pollution

Did you know our ears hear and process sounds while we sleep? One study found that our brains may even respond to these various sounds by processing the new information while we slumber. That might sound like a pretty cool fact – and it is – but it’s important to keep in mind that this comes at the cost of quality sleep. If your mind is processing new information, it’s not gaining the full benefit of sleep. In fact, one study found that noise pollution, and specifically nocturnal noise pollution, can impact your health and well-being significantly. This is because when you’re constantly being disturbed by something as you sleep, you’re less likely to rest well and more likely to end up tired and stressed the next day. If you constantly find yourself cranky despite going to bed at a reasonable hour, you might want to investigate if nocturnal noise pollution is the culprit.

Considering our senses never completely turn off, it’s wise to minimize noise stimulation before and during sleep. Eliminate as much noise from your room as possible. If you live in an area that gets a lot of traffic at night, consider investing in high quality, insulated blackout curtains. This can help muffle the sound from outside and allow you to sleep more deeply while also combating any lingering light pollution that might seep in from your windows. Society6 has a range of vegan blackout curtains in a number of designs sure to please.

Improve air quality

As well as creating a beautiful sleeping space, some houseplants actually improve air quality and therefore our sleep. Formaldehyde can be found in a number of different fabrics; benzene and trichloroethylene are found in multiple household products. All of these chemicals have been found to be detrimental to human and animal health, leaking from the fabrics and products they are contained in and polluting the air in our homes. Some plants are proficient at removing these toxins from the air and creating better conditions for sleep. Try placing an Aloe Vera or Chrysanthemum house plants in your room to improve both air quality and the ambience in your bedroom.

Color me sleepy

For millennia, colors have been used to change our mood and support our body functions. Reds are known to increase appetite, blood pressure, and heart rate – not exactly what you want in your bedroom! Calming hues – soft greys, muted greens and blues are perfect for inducing feelings of sleepiness and helping to calm our minds. One study found that light blue or turquoise walls paired with brown décor to be the most restful color combination for sleep, with more couples reporting higher quality sleep with longer durations when sleeping in rooms with this scheme than any participants in the study.

If you have trouble sleeping, it is certainly worth painting your bedroom a calming hue. Give your mind the best chance possible to relax and rest throughout the night. And don’t think that you have to sacrifice on color because you’re opting for vegan options, either. There are a number of vegan friendly paints on the market with beautiful colors to choose from. Megan Markle even uses them!

Keep it cool

The temperature of your home and bedroom can have a big impact on your rest. The optimal temperature for sleep is between 60 and 67°F, so aiming for this range when setting your thermostat for the night is a good goal. If you’re finding it difficult to stay warm or cool enough despite reaching the target temperature in your room, however, there are additional solutions to consider.

Along with controlling the temperature in your room with heating and cooling systems, the bedding we choose can also impact our sleeping temperature. Flannel sheets can help to keep us warm in cooler months, while crisp cotton sheets are better for warmer months of the year. Pure Nature 24 has an extensive range of vegan bed linens and even stock vegan mattresses, pillows and duvets to create a comfortable bedroom.

Sleepy aromas

It might sound far-fetched, but certain scents can help you fall asleep and stay asleep. This is because the olfactory nerve – the nerve that gives us our sense of smell – begins in your nose and continues directly with the brain. The scents we inhale interface with various parts of our minds, including the amygdala and the limbic system. And since these systems are both in charge of regulating the part of your body that triggers flight or fight responses, it makes sense that certain scents really do help calm us down and prepare us for sleep. They can help soothe our nerves and breathing patterns, too, to help us feel safe and protected.

With the above in mind, aromatherapy is a great way to set the scene for sleep. A few drops of lavender in your bath before bed or some attractive diffuser reeds in your bedroom can help permeate your room with restful aromas. Tisserand Aromatherapy have a vast range of vegan aromatherapy products for de-stressing, sleeping and to detox your environment.