In today’s article I want to cover part 2 of your sleep sanctuary. You can read part 1 here. I want to cover all the things in your bedroom that you could upgrade in order to improve your sleep.
So many people have a hard time sleeping because of what they actually have in their bedroom.
Everything in your bedroom is either helping you to sleep or hindering you from sleep. So it’s best to optimize as much as you can.
Many of the upgrades can cost thousands of dollars just by themselves. Don’t feel like you need to purchase all of them in order to sleep well.
With that said, I’ll do my best to detail what products to have in your bedroom to create the ultimate sleep sanctuary.
The CBT-I Pitfall
Before I start i want to address an aspect of CBT-i (which stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia)
According to Sandford Medicine CBTI is
CBTI stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, a structured treatment that helps people with insomnia improve their sleep habits. CBT-I can be effective for both short-term and chronic insomnia, and it’s considered the most effective nonpharmacological treatment for chronic insomnia. CBT-I can produce results that are similar to sleep medication, without side effects and with fewer chances of relapse.
If you’re new to the insomnia world CBT-I is the “go to” method for helping people get better sleep. Although I agree with many aspects of it, I find that it doesn’t always work and many people who adopt CBTI principles get extremely neurotic about it. This further solidifies their “Type A” control everything personality.
I find that Type A personality types tend to be insomniacs more often than other personality types.
I also find that CBTI doesn’t do a good job explaining the biophysics of light in order to fully understand its effects on sleep. But that’s another article entirely.
This is a reason why I try to cite as many studies as I can when I talk about light in my articles.
There are other reasons I don’t fully buy into CBTI, but it does offer a lot of good tips for helping people to sleep.
With that out of the way let’s talk about your bedroom….your sleep sanctuary.
Upgrading Your Bedroom
Lighting
The lighting in your bedroom is absolutely critical for your sleep. In an ideal world you would avoid turning on any lights (red or blue) after sunset. You’d also be going to bed about an hour after the sun sets. Unfortunately in our modern technology driven society that’s not easy.
No light is ideal. The second best option is candle light or firelight as that is much more natural but still not ideal or practical. The third best option is red lighting, orange lighting, yellow lighting and then incandescent bulbs.
- Firelight or candlelight
- Red light bulbs
- Orange light bulbs
- Yellow light bulbs
- Incandescent
- Standard LEDs
- Fluorescent bulbs
We use red bulbs all around our home and the improvement in our sleep has been night and day (excuse the pun).
I do realize that typically there’s only one person in a relationship that deals with sleep issues and to explain this to a “normie” is difficult. So option “B” if your spouse isn’t supportive of getting red lights, is to wear blue blocking glasses.
Here’s how I wear them…
- Yellow – I wear these when inside during the day working on computers or looking at my phone
- When the sun sets, I switch my screens to zero blue light and put on my orange blue blocking glasses
- 2 hours before bed I put on my red blue blocking glasses
- I don’t take them off until I’m laying in bed with the red lights out. Then I close my eyes and put my sleep mask on.
Darkness
For healthy sleep and a long life, my general principles is embrace the brightness of the day and embrace darkness at night. Accentuate both. Get lots of sun during the day and keep your evenings DARK.
In terms of your bedroom what does this look like?
Well if you’re like me, you might have some gadgets in your room that have little LED indicator lights on them. The photons from these devices will suppress your melatonin levels. I like to use what’s called Junk Light Dots to cover up any light coming from devices that are in my bedroom.
Never ever sleep with a nightlight on or a bathroom light on with the door cracked. I do not recommend having any light on at all in your bedroom at night.
If you absolutely must have a nightlight I like using these bulbs inside this little salt lamp. Or you could use devices like these which we also use if we travel to hotels or Air B&Bs.
The other way you’re going to want to accentuate the darkness is by fully blacking out your windows. There’s a new company called UblockOut that is hands down the best. Other products will give you some good options but nothing tailored to each of your individual window sizes.
When you purchase one of their products, you actually send in the size of your window and its custom built for you in order to block out 100% of all light in your bedroom. Nothing comes close.
Air
I assume that at this point your doing nasal breathing using mouth tape each night. If you are not, then the air in your bedroom is going to put a stress on your lungs. There are chemicals in your bedroom that you’re breathing all night long. Breathing through your nose (which is the natural way to breathe) helps trap these toxins and chemicals into your nose hair to keep them from entering your body. Your nose is like an air filter, which is one reason why it’s important to use mouth tape while you sleep.
But I digress…
You’re going to want to have a high quality air purifier in your bedroom. When your lungs are breathing heavy metals and toxins that are off gassing, this is perceived by the body as a physiological stress. To mitigate this stress, your body will release a certain amount of cortisol. Elevated cortisol can increase body temperature (and heart rate) which can wake you up.
Getting rid of as many external stressors as possible while you sleep is key. You want your nervous system to be in a parasympathetic mode.
Here’s a good definition of parasympathetic:
The parasympathetic nervous system is part of the body’s autonomic nervous system. Its partner is the sympathetic nervous system, which control’s the body’s fight or flight response. The parasympathetic nervous system controls the body’s ability to relax. It’s sometimes called the “rest and digest” state.
If you don’t have the funds for an air purifier you can always invest in small house plants to keep in your bedroom. This has the added benefit of what I like to call “Rewilding”. That is returning to nature as much as we can. If we cannot be in nature, we bring nature into our homes.
Air purifying house plants are a great way to do that.
Here are some that I use..
- Bamboo Palm: It removes formaldehyde and is also said to act as a natural humidifier.
- Snake Plant: It absorb nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde.
- Areca Palm: One of the best air purifying plants for general air cleanliness.
- Spider Plant: Great indoor plant for removing carbon monoxide and other toxins or impurities. Spider plants are one of three plants NASA deems best at removing formaldahyde from the air.
- Peace Lily: Peace lilies could be called the “clean-all.” They’re often placed in bathrooms or laundry rooms because they’re known for removing mold spores. Also know to remove formaldehyde and trichloroethylene.
- Gerbera Daisy: Not only do these gorgeous flowers remove benzene from the air, they’re known to improve sleep by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off more oxygen over night.
Temperature
Room temperature is another critical factor. Your internal core body temperature will lower by 1 to 2 degrees as you move from light sleep to REM sleep to deep sleep.
If your room is too warm, you’re going to be working against what your body is trying to do. Being too warm will be perceived by your nervous system as a biological stressor. Whenever your body encounters stress, either cortisol or adrenaline will be released from your adrenal glands. Guess what your body needs to produce and release these hormones?
Energy.
You don’t want to increase energy output when you’re sleeping. You want to reduce the energy output. It would be like trying to fall asleep while peddling a bicycle.
There are many different kinds of air conditioners that are available these days that you could look into. Getting a fan might help also. Fans to emit a rather strong magnetic field which is another stressor your body has to deal with during sleep so you want to be aware of that. Try to keep the fan as far away from you as possible.
During the Summer months I like to use a dehumidifier and in the Winter when the air is more dry I like to use a cool humidifier. When the air is more dry, you’ll find it requires less energy and is easier to cool down.
Bed
I only recommend organic beds. The problem with regular beds is that they are full of chemicals that off gas all night long. Your face is inches away from the chemicals that are coming out of the bed into your mouth and nose while you breathe. These chemcials are dangerous, may cause chronic degenerative diseases and are once again a stressor when you’re trying to sleep.
We got our organic bed in 2011 and haven’t looked back since. It feels really good knowing that I’m not sleeping on a mattress that could be off gassing endocrine disrupting chemicals into my lungs.
The other thing you may want to consider is sleeping on an inclined bed. There’s something called ICT, or Inclined Bed Therapy. The idea is to raise the head of your bed 6 inches, not the foot of your bed. Sleeping with your head inclined helps to increase circulation and lymphatic flow. This reduces blood pressure throughout the night but also helps to lower core body temperature.
At first it seems counterintuitive but it is much more healthy to sleep with your head inclined if you can.
Pro tip: Point the head of your bed to true north. Get a compass and if you can do this, will help you to energetically align the magnetics of your body to the north pole.
Bedding
Bed Sheets
For bed sheets I only recommend linen or wool. If you are using organic cotton or leather that’s okay but not as good as linen or wool.
A lot of people will use bed sheets made from rayon, bamboo or silk. Even worse is bedding made of polyester, acrylic, spandex, viscose and even nylon. You definitely want to swap these out for linen or wool bedding materials whether they be sheets of comforters.
Why avoid these other non natural material bed sheets? Because the attract an electrical charge. Have you ever shocked your finger after walking on the carpet? Your body is building a static electrical charge internally which is not natural. Your body will be in a stressed state until you release this voltage. If you doubt this, read the book The Body Electric.
Bamboo and silk bedsheets are also sprayed with chemicals and pesticides which get onto your skin. You don’t want this while you’re sleeping.
I like linen the best because not only is it 100% natural and doesn’t attract ambient static frequencies and it can absorb moisture up to 20% without feeling damp. It repels dirt, stains and emf. Last but not least linen is hypoallergenic, antibacterial and anti fungal.
Cooling devices
During REM and deep sleep cycles your body lowers its core body temperature by 1 to 2 degrees. You want to sleep in a cool environment. If a high end air conditioner is not in the cards, you may want to invest in a device like a ChilliPad or BedJet.
I personally have a Chillipad and highly recommend it. It’s rather costly but I prefer it over having air being pumped into my bed near my feet with a BedJet.
Magnetico
About 10 years ago we purchased a Magnetico Mattress Pad. This is a thick pad with hundreds of magnets embedded inside of it to create a static magnetic field. This helps to replicate or supplement the weak magnetic field of the earth and it allows you to sleep inside of a field of magnetism that is the antidote to the EMF environment you could be already living in.
We sleep incredibly well on the Magnetico Mattress Pad and highly recommend it. It comes in three strengths 5 gauss, 10 gauss and 20 gauss. We currently have the 10 gauss and will be upgrading soon to the 20 gauss.
Faraday cage
The idea of a faraday cage is to block the ambient nnemf frequencies we’re exposed to. It’s essentially like a giant mosquito net but instead of it being made out of cotton, it’s made out of silver which repels signals. If it’s made correctly, you will not be able to get a WiFi signal on your phone if you are inside of it. I do not recommend using a magnetico with a faraday canopy. Choose one over the other. We opt for the Magnetico.
Carpeting
In an ideal bedroom you will not have any carpeting. Carpets are notorious for being storehouses for dust, chemicals, dirt, debris, parasites and other toxins you do not want to be breathing while you sleep. Get rid of your carpet. It’ll cool down your room which is always better for sleep.
EMF
This is a large subject and it’s one that I’m always learning more about. nnEMF are electromagnetic fields that are “not native” to man. As a result our biology considers them to be a biological stressor.
If you’re exposed to these fields for a prolonged amount of time, they could cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease, oxidative stress and even damage tissues by causing hypoxia at the cellular levels. Any motor will produce a magnetic field. Blenders, electrical switch boxes, “Smart Meters”, cars and hairdryers are big sources. But there are other sources as well like Wifi routers, cell phones (if still turned on) and even cell phone towers in your area.
If you have a Wifi router turn it off at night, you will notice a difference.
If you have a smart meter on the outside of your bedroom wall you can mitigate that by calling your power company to see if they’ll “downgrade” your meter to an analogue version. Our company did that for us. As a result we have to have a guy come to our home once month to “read our meter”. I think it costs us an additional $9 a month for this.
After they switched them out to the analogue version, we put smart meter covers over them. On the inside I painted the entire wall with 2 coats of Y-Shield carbon based EMF blocking paint. When that dried (it’s black paint) after two coats, I repainted with white paint and you don’t even notice.
Once that was dry I put tin foil all where the meter is. Then over the top of the tin foil I used MW Absorber Fabric and Ni/Cu Ripstop Fabric.
If it’s easier to remember, here’s everything I did to mitigate the smart meter…
- Downgraded it to an analogue meter
- Placed covers over the top of them
- On the inside of the wall I rolled 2 paints of Y Shield Paint
- Tin foil
- MW Absorber Fabric
- Ni/Cu Ripstop Fabric
That room used to be my home office. But even though I did all of that I still didn’t want to be around that energy. I definitely wouldn’t want to sleep in a room with a smart meter on the outside. But if I had to sleep in it, I’d feel much better about it b doing these things.
The other thing you can do is buy devices that emit a scalar field which harmonizes these fields into coherence with the body. Scalar frequencies can be more powerful than the frequencies emitted from a smart meter or Wi-Fi router and they bring the waves into a parallel waveform that your body can more easily handle.
The ones I like are from a company called BluShield and we also have the Rest Shield. The latter is in my office while the former (the Cube) is in our bedroom.
If you have the money and are able, I would hire a professional to come to your home and test everything. We had Brian Hoyer from Shielded Healing come to our home and spend 4 hours doing a home assessment.
One thing I didn’t mention is dirty electricity coming from the wiring in your walls. These wires emit an electric and magnetic field that can be measured up to 6 feet from the wall itself. In America we use 60hz electricity which is very damaging to our cells and in particular our cell membranes. Professor Martin Pall has done a lot of work on the cell membrane and the calcium channels that are affected by these fields.
These fields allow calcium to enter inside the cell in very high concentrations and can lead to many diseases. Unplug any chords from the wall before you go to bed. I also have numerous GreenWave Dirty Electricity filters in all the plugs in my bedroom.
Some people who are really sensitive to EMF exposure have told me they got an electrician to come to their home and break the circuit to their bedroom. They’ll run that to a switch on the wall. So before bed, they’ll simply flip the switch and turn off all the electricity to their bedroom. Many people feel better doing this.
I no longer deal with sleep issues but if I did, I’d definitely consider doing this.
Nightstand
I have no alarm clocks on my nightstand. I have an extra pair of my red blue blocking glasses (in case I have to get up in the middle of the night) as well as my sleep mask, my water for when i get up the next morning and a red flashlight.
Other than that I have nothing plugged in and no clocks anywhere in my bedroom.
Conclusion
In order to build a “biohacked bedroom” or “sleep sanctuary” it could cost you thousands of dollars. If you invest in your sleep a little bit over time, you’ll be able to get all of the products I mentioned here in this article. Remember take it slow and make it a 5 year goal to invest in your sleep.
Sleeping well is a true gift and it is a skill. Work at it and practice every night at improving that skill.
Questions
- What’s your bedroom like?
- What’s your lighting like?
- Do you have a spouse? Are they open to these ideas?
- Does your bedroom feel like a nice place to sleep?
Comment below.
