My tips for creating the perfect environment for sleep revolve around four C’s.

1. Cool

Make sure when you enter your bedroom you feel a slight drop in temperature. Ensuring your sleep environment is cool will help drop your core temperature which prepares you for a good snooze.

The general advice is to have your room between 16-17 degrees Celsius, but this is too prescriptive for me! I’d say as long as the rest of the house is warmer than your bedroom, you’re doing it right.

2. Consistency

Those of us who would consider themselves poor sleepers do so because we wake up several times throughout the night. However, this is interesting because we actually all do this – even those who believe themselves to be great sleepers! This is because at the end of each sleep cycle, our natural human instincts mean we wake up to check our surroundings to ensure we are safe while snoozing.

Light and noise aren’t usually factored into many people’s thought-processes when they go to bed – even though many of us fall asleep with the TV on! This is a mistake because when the TV turns off, and we come to the end of one our sleep cycles, our sleep environment has changed – now, no noise and no light. Luckily for good sleepers, they will manage to be awake, turn over, and fall back asleep in quick succession. Poor sleepers on the other hand will do the same, but rather than turning over and falling back asleep, this moment will become a time to have failure thoughts. Failure thoughts usually revolve around our kids, work and relationships.

It’s therefore very important to be consistent with your sleep environment. If you are going to sleep with the TV on, make sure it’s on throughout your entire sleeping time. Same goes for any other devices we have on while we sleep; podcasts, music, fans, lights etc. Otherwise, to save the electricity bill and climate, try sleeping with no noise or light stimulation.

3. Comfortable

You should strive to make your immediate environment as comfortable as possible – focusing on your mattress, pillow and duvet.

We’ve already mentioned dropping core temperature, but there are other ways you can do this aside from dropping temp in the bedroom.

The type of mattress you choose contributes significantly to how cool you can be throughout the night. If you’re a hot sleeper, a foam mattress will be contributing to you remaining hot throughout the night – it might be better to then go for a mattress with springs which help create airflow. Other than heat, a mattress can facilitate good sleep posture. It might be worth giving a zip and link an investigation if you’re part of a couple – there is no one-size fits all approach when it comes to a comfortable night’s sleep.

Duvet-wise, if you’re part of a couple, it can be a great idea to buy two separate duvets. This will prevent heat from your partner entering your sleep environment, keeping you cool and helping you to sleep better.

Other things to consider; bamboo sheets for hot sleepers, natural materials such as feathers and down for cool sleepers and adjustable pillows!

4. Clam

Keeping your room tidy and ensuring the walls are empty of garish patterns or frames help to create a calm, relaxing environment conducive to sleep. This is especially the case for children too. Clear away those toys and giant teddys, it really can help to create a pleasant environment which works to promote sleep.