Overview of Ideal Alaskan Summer Sleeping Environment

Creating an ideal sleeping environment is absolutely essential to getting a good night’s rest. It can also play a crucial role in the process of identifying and diagnosing a sleep disorder (or ruling it out). A sleep environment is, unfortunately, not something many people think about when they think about having sleeping problems. The common reaction is to instead reach for a sleep aid, such as melatonin. But an ideal sleeping environment can make all the difference in the world.

Having a good sleep environment means setting one up. The primary elements to have in a proper sleep environment are:

1. A dark room
2. A quiet room
3. No blue light (televisions, computers) – keep them out!
4. Nice sleeping apparel (sheets, pillows, mattresses)
5. A nice smelling room

Does your room hit all of these marks? If not, then that might be the cause of any sleep issues you are having. Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Get Blackout Curtains

Your room should be dark. Really dark. Barely-able-to-see dark. If you live out in the country, away from city lights, this is much easier for you, and you might not even need blackout curtains.

However, most people live with, or near, city lights. If that’s you, then you should consider getting blackout curtains. More importantly, because you live in Alaska, there are a handful of months out of the year where it is light out no matter where you live or what time of day. When you are sleeping, though, no outside lights should be visible from your room.

You can make blackout curtains yourself, or buy them online for relatively cheap (about $20). Some things to keep in mind with blackout curtains are:

• Make sure they hang down a couple of inches below and out from the edges of the windowpane
• Make sure they are thick enough to keep all light out
• Use them over blinds for increased effectiveness

In the same vein of thought, make sure no lights are on inside your house, such as night lights, flashing lights from electronics, etc.

Get Rid of Blue Light

As nice as it is to snuggle up in bed at night and watch TV or a movie, or play around on your computer or phone, for a good night's rest, you should remove sources of blue light from your room and not use them before bed.

Blue light significantly interrupts melatonin production, which is the hormone that helps you regulate sleep. In the hour before bed, you should avoid blue light at all costs. This means no television, to phones or tablets, and no computers.

Even just having these items in your room before bed is usually too much of a temptation. Your best bet is to just keep them out of your room. 

Get a Nice Pillow, Mattress, and Sheets

It’s amazing how much difference a nice sleeping arrangement will make in getting a good night’s sleep. Not only are nice sleep arrangement comfortable, they can:

• Keep away neck pain
• Keep away back pain back pain
• Breath better (good for hot nights)
• Help you get comfortable and stay comfortable to fall asleep faster and stay asleep

For a nice chunk of change, you can get a top of the line sleep setup (sheets, pillows, mattress). Don’t have several thousand dollars lying around? For a couple hundred dollars you can get high thread count sheets, a contoured memory foam pillow, and a thick memory foam topper for your bed.

Get Aromatherapy Tools

A nice smelling room will relax you and, over time, the particular scent will help condition your body to prepare for sleep.

• Get an aromatherapy candle, diffuser, or lamp
• Use the same scent every night – a scent that relaxes you
• An hour before bed, turn the diffuser/candle/lamp

Diffusers tend to be the most convenient, as you don’t have to blow the candle out and deal with the smoke smell before bed, and you can buy a diffuser with a timer.

Get a Fan (or Earplugs)

Do you deal with car noise? Neighbor noise? Noise from others in your house? If so, the white noise created by a fan is a great option! While a quiet room is generally ideal for sleeping, there’s no denying that white noise can help drown out outside noise. Some people even prefer white noise for sleeping.

However, if the noise is coming from inside your room, such as a snoring partner, use earplugs. They can be hard to get used to using, as they are a distraction, but many thousands of people comfortably adjust to using them and blocking out a noisy bed partner.

If you struggle with creating an ideal sleeping environment or getting a good night's sleep, please click the orange button to take a free online sleep test and talk with one of our sleep health professionals.