8 ways the ‘personality’ of your bedroom affects your sleep

Some lights that have a similar impact on your state of alertness are city lights. If your bedroom window overlooks a busy street, vehicular light, street lights, lights from construction sites, even  a bright moon, or a starlit sky can ruin your Z’s. Depending on your level of exhaustion or  heightened senses (which happens if the stress quotient was high that day) these innocuous lights can prevent you from deep slumber. Even light from elsewhere bouncing off shiny walls (with glossy surface, so matte textures are preferred for bedroom walls) or home décor, including mirrors, can increase the volume of light your sleeping eyes have to grapple with.

Work-From-Home Space

James Clear, the author of the best-seller Atomic Habits suggests that you must never work in your sleep space. It confuses the brain which prefers to pedal along conditioned pathways. This means two things: that while working you may feel sleepy; or vice versa, feel alert while trying to fall asleep. Yet how many of us continue to carry our work to bed. Even if your home is small, it's best to demarcate areas by using panels or folding room separators, to manage such distinctions.

Clutter

Another idea that Vastu shares with Feng Shui is to keep your rest areas uncluttered. So best to have your nighttime skincare routine, books and gadgets (even those that are switched off) inside drawers. Feng Shui also suggests avoiding mirrors facing the bed (you also don’t want to suddenly wake up at night and see a ghostly apparition ie. your own reflection distorted in the dark!) Similarly, unrepaired personal items (watches with no battery), mobile phones you are not using, clocks that don't work, grooming machines that are gathering dust, etc should not be kept in the bedroom because they are actually subliminally overloading your mind with must-be-done things and that can be disturbing.