Do you get enough sleep? According to the National Institutes of Health,as adults we need 7-8 hours of sleep on average each day, yet lots of us struggle to get this. A lack of sleep can cause or exacerbate depression, inflammatory diseases and even obesity. But sleep can also transform your life. It can make you happier, healthier and smarter, fresh-faced, more intuitive, more creative, a better athlete and also, much sexier … and the list goes on!
If you need more sleep why not give feng shui a try? There are many feng shui ways to promote better sleep and to create an environment for the kind of restful sleep that restores your cells and resets your spirit,. Most of them have no or little cost too, so you won't lose sleep fretting over finances!
Here are the best bedroom feng shui tips to improve sleep according to the interiors experts at 6decor.com.
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1. Choose Bedrooms at the Back-End of the House
By “back-end of the house,” I mean the sections of the home that’s close to the backyard (or at the opposite end from the street).
The main reason is that bedrooms at the back-end are usually much more quiet. Your sleep is less likely to be disrupted from the sound and movement of anything that roams in front of the house, which includes both human and automobile traffic. Because of this, you will also enjoy higher levels of privacy.
2. Avoid Bedrooms at the Top of the Garage
When your bedroom is on top of a garage, you sleep can be disrupted by a variety of factors, including the smell of car exhaust, noise from garage door movements, insects that creeps into your bedroom, and warmer bedroom temperatures. If these four factors are non-existent, your bedroom’s feng shui location should be fine. I wrote a full article about it, and you can read it here.
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3. Avoid Bedrooms under Highly Active Areas
Active areas can include restrooms, entertainment rooms, or other areas where humans are active instead of sleeping peacefully. This usually does not apply to apartments and high-rises, because the bedroom is likely below another bedroom, and the flooring is usually thick and sound-proof.
However, single family homes are a different story. If your bedroom is right under a restroom, your sleep can be interrupted whenever someone flushes the toilet. Or, if you live right under a room of a teenager who has a different sleep schedule, their movements, music, or other activities can keep you awake all night.
4. Avoid Bedrooms on Top of Kitchen Stove
Some say that sleeping above the kitchen stove brings bad energy that disturbs sleep and creates health issues. Though I do not disagree with them, what I do know is that your bedroom’s temperature may be higher than normal, caused by the cooking activities and the heat given off from the back of the refrigerator. Because the optimal temperature for sleep is around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, you may be losing on some quality sleep.
Here’s another potential issue: Do you know where the grease and smoke goes? The kitchen ventilation and exhaust hood use a tube to take the grease smoke out. The tube is filled with filth, and any sort of leaks or malfunction can definitely bring negative health consequences when you’re sleeping right next to it.
5. Don’t Oversize Your Bedroom
If your bedroom is too large, you may wake up tired even if you get a full eight hours of sleep. From the people that I’ve talked to, I’ve learned that some people feel find it hard to fully relax in extremely large bedrooms.
Large bedroom is bad feng shui for sleep
This could be our survival instincts at play. We are most vulnerable when we’re sleeping, and with a larger space, we may feel less in control of our surroundings, causing us to sleep on high alert rather than fully relaxed.
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6. Place the Bed’s Head against a Wall
Imagine yourself on a plane, seated in a window seat. If you had all the window seats to yourself, would you sleep with your head on the side of the walkway?
The same applies to your bed. Although I’m sure you won’t have flight attendants or passengers walking around your bedroom, having a headboard against the wall gives you a subtle sense of security that’ll help you fall asleep easier. This again has to do with our survival instincts and sense of security.
7. Avoid Placing Bed against the Same Wall as the Door
This is especially true if you live with someone else, like a significant other, family members, or even disrespectful roommates that have a different sleeping schedule than you.
Whenever the door opens while you’re asleep, you’re more likely to wake up on high alert, mainly because the sound and movement of the opening door is loud and sudden. Also, you will have to rise from your bed to see who’s behind that door, instead of just raising your head if your bed is placed on the opposite side of the door.
8. Avoid Placing the Head of Bed Directly below a Window
The window is the gateway between your bedroom and the outside world. When you sleep with your head directly under a window, your sleep is more easily disrupted by the Qi coming from the outside, which includes wind, scent, noise, light, shadows, and movements of insects and animals.
When the sound, movement, or scent is unfamiliar, they will alert your survival instincts and completely wake you up, sometimes making it hard for you to fall asleep again.
9. Place Head of Bed against the Wall opposite from the Door
Placing your bed this way gives you higher levels of comfort, security, and control.
As mentioned earlier, even when the door open1s while you’re asleep, all you have to do is to raise your head to see who’s coming in from that door. You will feel less alarmed, making it easier for you to return to sleep. Just remember to avoid placing the bed directly in front of the door.
10. Bed Should Not Share Wall with Toilet
This is a little similar to having your bedroom right under a toilet. If your bed shares a wall with the toilet, you will be able to hear the flushing of the toilet and the water moving through the pipes. These water pipes are usually not limited for toilet use, as water faucets and showers may very well use the same water pipe.
An easy solution is to use a thick headboard for your bed, which can minimize these unwanted noises that disturbs your sleep. Here are some other useful tips from Dana Claudat.
11. Do Not Share Wall with the Kitchen
This is a little similar to having your bedroom right above a kitchen stove. Some say the fire energy from the kitchen stove can cause insomnia and other health problems arising from lack of sleep. A more scientific explanation is that the wall transfers heat from the kitchen, which in turn reduces your sleep quality. Also, the sound of the refrigerator and water moving to the kitchen can all bring noise to your bedroom.
Further, kitchen is an area with high amounts of human activities. If you live with someone with a different sleep schedule, your sleep will be disrupted by the clinking sound of dishes, ovens, pots, as well as all other activities conducted in the kitchen.
12. Avoid Sloped or Slanted Ceilings
The same is true with slanted or sloped ceilings. Though the feeling is very subtle, it does give you some sort of unease or feelings of being compressed (worse for claustrophobics), and those feelings carry over whenever you go to bed. This is especially true if you sleep on the side with the lower ceiling. An easy solution is to use a canopy bed. The four pillars that surround you while you sleep have the tendency to make you feel more “supported” from the downward pressure of the ceiling.
13. Avoid Bed under a Beam
Just like the sloped or slanted ceilings, sleeping under a beam can also give you a subtle feeling of unease. Beams give you discomfort because it is similar to having a sharp object pointed at you. Also, they can give you a feeling that your space is being chopped up, which can be highly distracting.
The size and shape of the beam, as well as the height of the ceiling, can all play a role on how much discomfort you feel. The easy cure to this is to use a canopy bed.
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14. Remove Hanging Furnitures above Your Bed
How do you feel when you stand right under a low-hanging chandelier that’s the size of you?
If you have anything hanging right above your bed, such as a chandelier, you will get that same feeling of discomfort because you may not feel 100% safe, and the effects are worse if it is hanging right above your head. The cure is to remove that furniture and place it somewhere else, like right above a dining table, where people will not reside right under it.
15. Don’t Place Large Furnitures by Your Bed
Some people like putting large bookshelves right by the bed. It provides easy access to books for those who enjoy reading right before going to sleep.
Small bookshelves are fine. However, if you have bookshelves that are more than six feet (180 cm) tall, then you are better off without the bookshelf. The reason is that the large furniture can give you that invisible pressure that makes you feel oppressed. It’s similar to the feeling you get when you drive right next to a truck or when you’re standing right under a monumental structure.
16. Get Work out of the Bedroom
Work and sleep don’t mix, so avoid work-related furniture and feng shui in the bedroom, such as a desk. If you have a desk in your bedroom, you may go to sleep thinking about work instead of relaxing. Worse, it may invoke work-related stress, which can significantly impact your sleep quality.
This applies mostly to adults and not students, because the adults are the ones who get more pressure from work due to the need to support the family and the kids. The easy cure to this is to remove the desk or other furnitures that remind you of work. Here’s a tip I got from Hipster Feng Shui. If you live in a small space, you can try dividing your work area and your bed with a curtain.
17. Use Conventional Furnitures
Some modern furniture designs are very slick and appealing.
Though I love how it looks, I’m not sure how comfortable it always is. Having experienced wood cracking and furnitures breaking, I would feel anxious and scared of breaking that bed when I move or adjust on the bed to find a comfortable sleeping position. I suggest that you choose comfortability over design. And as for bed frames, choose the ones with proper support so that you can feel more relaxed.
18. Use Dim Lighting
Bright lights keep us awake and can disrupt our sleep pattern. It is true even with artificial lights and especially true for LED lights, which is known to create “light pollution” that causes sleepless nights (this is also the reason why it’s bad feng shui to sleep with your head under a window). Try to use dim lights with a soothing color, as it can provide the atmosphere and environment as you are getting ready for bed.
19. Use Blinds and Curtains That Completely Blocks out Light
Even a little bit of lighting can disrupt your sleep, simply because light can penetrate our eyelids and influence our biological clock.
You are in complete control of the lights in your bedroom. However, you have little or no control of the lights outside of your home. That is why you need blinds and curtains that can completely block out the light from the outside. If your current blinds or curtains have light shining through the cracks at night, it may be worthy to invest in double layered curtains to improve your sleep sleep.
20. Move the Electronics Away from Your Bed
People today are so attached to their electronics and smartphones (I am guilty of it too).
Electronics, such as your smartphone or alarm clock, are great human inventions. It tells you the current time and give you your friend’s Facebook status updates. However, most of us are addicted to our smartphones, and staring at this artificial light before bed is wrecking your sleep. Remove them from easy-access, and you can find your sleep quality improve.
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