Have you ever considered designing your bedroom in a way that promotes healthy sleep? I hadn’t until just recently, but that quickly became my primary focus in our One Room Challenge bedroom renovation. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fun design elements and forget that the purpose of a bedroom is for sleep. While the design does play a role in creating a peaceful environment to sleep in, so do the materials we choose to use in our bedroom.

We spend more time in our bedroom than any other room in our home. If during sleep is when our bodies experience the most healing and recovery, shouldn’t our bedroom support that the best it can? Today, I’m sharing a few things to consider when designing a bedroom to promote healthy sleep.

Affiliate Disclosure: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.

Before we get going, I want to thank my partners for this project:

Fanimation Lighting for our new modern ceiling fan
Sleep & Beyond for my new favorite bedding
By Cloud Designs for one-of-a-kind genuine Turkish rug pillows

Designing a Bedroom to Promote Healthy Sleep

Here are the things I’m considering as I design our bedroom to encourage deep, restorative sleep for us…

1. Creating a Peaceful Environment by Reducing Clutter

There are multiple studies that show sleeping in a cluttered room can directly impact your sleep! I know from my own experience that I am significantly more distracted and less at peace in a messy environment. To tackle the cluttered areas in our bedroom, I am building an entire additional closet to store the random things that seem to accumulate in our bedroom. From our suitcases (since we travel so much), to my husbands racing gear, to the miscellaneous linens and papers and things that just need a home. Follow along on Instagram as I get started building our custom linen/storage closet with hidden doors!

2. Choosing Non-Toxic, Hypoallergenic Materials for Easy Breathing

It’s taken me a while to realize how important it is to choose the right materials for our home. I knew low VOC paint was a good idea, but I didn’t really consider the impact of our rugs, pillows, bedding, curtains, furniture, etc. This is top priority when designing a bedroom to promote healthy sleep in a very literal sense. Both my husband and I are prone to allergies, and I also want to give us peace of mind knowing that our room is not full of harmful toxins. So, as I’m tackling this room makeover, I’m being extra picky about the materials I use in our bedroom. Primarily, I am focusing on using natural materials, especially organic or highly certified versions, as much as possible.

A few natural, non-toxic products I’m using:

In addition to the materials we’re using, we also have an air purifier in our bedroom and I’ll have at least a few plants to help clean the air.

3. Making Our Bedroom Dark and Quiet

Anyone else sensitive to light and sound when trying to fall asleep? Thankfully we live in a quiet neighborhood and our bedroom also stays fairly dark since we are on the outskirts of the city. However, occasionally the neighbors behind us leave their outdoor flood lights on all night, and that has interrupted our sleep a few times. To address this, I’m adding linen blackout curtains to our windows, along with our current linen blend light filtering curtains for when we want the light to come through. These will also help insulate our windows to keep the room our preferred temperature.

4. Creating a Cool Environment for Hot Sleepers

My husband and I are both hot sleepers and have noticed that we sleep much better in a cool environment. Of course, we have full control over the temperature of our home, but I’ve found there’s more to it than just room temperature. Air flow is important to keep your body cool as well. I know everyone seems to want to replace their outdated ceiling fans with a pretty light fixture, but my husband is 1000% against not having a ceiling fan and for good reason. We live in the south, it’s hot in the summer, and we’re both hot sleepers, so a ceiling fan just makes way too much sense. Thankfully, Fanimation has some beautiful modern fans to choose from!

In addition to a fan, I’ve also recently discovered how big a difference our comforter makes. It’s pretty normal for me to wake up because I’m hot in the middle of the night, even on cold nights! I always thought you either got a down or down alternative comforter/duvet. But both tend to hold in heat and moisture. Wool on the other hand is naturally temperature regulating and moisture wicking, which means it keeps you warm, but also cool. We’ve been using Sleep & Beyond’s 100% natural, washable wool-filled comforter for the past two weeks, and I’m already obsessed! The fact that I haven’t woken up in a sweat a single time is amazing. Even my husband has commented on how he is sleeping cooler. If you’re a hot sleeper, I highly recommend looking into a wool comforter/duvet. You can use my code Dani10 for 10% off any Sleep & Beyond products, purchased from their website here: sleepandbeyond.com

5. Finding Your Goldilocks Pillow for Support and Comfort

When it comes to pillows, my husband and I are as picky as it gets. We both have had memory foam contour pillows for a while, but we never really loved them. After buying and returning numerous pillows, I finally found not one, but two pillows we love!

It turns out that natural talalay latex (not synthetic latex) as well as wool both have a lot of beneficial properties. They are both non-toxic, sustainably sourced, breathable and cooling, and naturally dust mite resistant. This shredded natural latex pillow is the goldilocks of pillows. You can’t adjust the amount of filling inside, but because it’s shredded, you can adjust the firmness and shape by just moving it around. However, be warned that it will have that distinct latex odor for a few weeks until it airs out. This wool and latex pillow is another great option. It comes with a wool filled cover and does not have any noticable odor, so that’s a plus! This pillow is adjustable by removing as much or as little of the filling as you prefer. It starts out fairly firm, so since I prefer a softer pillow, I kept removing filling to find the amount that’s just right.

Do you have other tips or things you’ve tried to create a healthy sleep environment?

Be sure to check out the other room renovations on the One Room Challenge Blog!

Pin Facebook Tweet Email Print

Designing a Bedroom to Promote Healthy Sleep – One Room Challenge Week 2