How to Improve Sleep Quality - Residential Acoustics®

Why Quality Sleep Matters

Not sleeping well at night can impact your body, health, and well-being more than you’d think. Not only will you feel tired all the time, but your physical and mental health will decline in noticeable ways. Quality sleep helps improve brain function, aids in muscle recovery, boosts longevity and much more.

8 hours seems to be the magic number when it comes to how much sleep you should get each night, but it’s not that simple. Quality sleep can be defined by how much of the night you were in a deep sleep, or REM, as opposed to light sleep when you may have been tossing and turning. How can you make sure that you’re getting to sleep quickly and staying in a deep sleep for most of the night? Check out our tips below for the best quality sleep setup. Soundproofing will be your best friend!

how to improve sleep quality — Not only do blue light sources strain your eyes, but they alert your brain to stay awake. Avoid using these devices before bed for a peaceful night’s rest.

Avoid Blue Light Sources to Fall Asleep Faster

The first step to creating the ideal sleep environment is to avoid exposing yourself to blue light immediately before going to bed. Sources of blue light typically include:

Laptops
Tablets
Cell phones
Televisions

I know we’re all guilty of scrolling through our phones until we finally get tired, but this habit actually inhibits your ability to get to sleep. Ideally, you should replace your phone and/or TV with a good book since it’ll put less strain on your eyes and help you get to sleep even faster. If you absolutely can’t go without your phone or TV before bed, try out blue light glasses. They filter out the harmful light that strains your eyes and keeps you awake longer at night.

Use Curtains to Block Light that Prevents Rest

You’ll also want to keep the natural light and other invasive outdoor light out so you can fall asleep fast and stay asleep. Try installing blackout curtains or just regular curtains if you just want to cut out some of the light. Though, I try to avoid blackout curtains, because I like being woken up by the sun coming in through my windows, but to each their own!

Most people I know sleep the same way – with the fan and AC on nice and cold, snuggled up under all of the covers. No one likes to be uncomfortable or sweating when they’re trying to get to sleep at night, especially when they don’t have to be. Adjusting your sleeping conditions will make a noticeable difference in how fast you fall asleep and how much rest you get.

Soundproof Your Bedroom to Sleep Better

For any light sleepers out there who awake from noise, soundproof curtains may be a necessity to get to sleep and stay asleep at night. Soundproof curtains can be used over the windows in your bedroom to block out traffic noise, people talking, music, and even barking dogs.

Be sure you’re not just buying blackout soundproof curtains for a cheap price from a website like Amazon. In order to really be considered soundproof, the curtains you purchase should have an STC-rating, meaning they are lab tested and proven to block a certain amount of sound. Nothing made from thick fabric will have an STC-rating, it actually needs to be made of a solid material that is also flexible such as mass loaded vinyl.

If you have loud roommates, you may want to soundproof your door as well. If they aren’t too disturbing, you can start with installing door seals and sweeps so you can prevent sound leaks. For more extreme cases, you may need to pair those products with a soundproof door cover to keep out sound still leaking in through and around the door.

Lastly, if you can still hear noises that are keeping you up at night, you might just need a white noise sound machine. While it may seem counterintuitive to add more noise to the situation, sound machines work to cover, or mask, distracting noises by raising the ambient noise level in your room. They can sound a bit out of place at first, but after about 15 minutes it starts to blend in with the sound of a fan or AC.

See Similar: How to Block Out Traffic Noise

Hacks for a Quality Sleep Environment

Here’s the breakdown on how to get the best sleep possible at night:

Avoid blue light before bed
Use blackout curtains to keep out the sun
Soundproof your windows with soundproof curtains
Soundproof your bedroom door with a soundproof door cover
Use a white noise machine