Best Bedroom Colors for Sleep
The colors of your bedroom can impact your ability to fall asleep. The right bedroom color can get you in the mood for rest. Take a look at Counting Sheep’s guide to choosing the best bedroom colors for sleep.
The colors of your bedroom can impact your ability to fall asleep. The right bedroom color can get you in the mood for rest. Take a look at Counting Sheep’s guide to choosing the best bedroom colors for sleep.
What is your recipe for great sleep? Does it involve fluffy pillows, a firm mattress, heavy curtains, and some white noise? Whatever you do improve your sleep environment, consider adding bedroom paint color to your list. According to studies and multiple surveys, the color of your bedroom doesn’t only affect the look of the space, but also the way the room makes you feel.
Colors have always had meaning and a powerful effect on our mood, and being in a good or a bad mood can affect our ability to fall asleep. Typically, cool colors help us to relax, making them ideal for bedroom, while warm colors are stimulating, making them perfect for social rooms. When we are stressed, angry or sad, it may be hard to snooze away. On the flip side, when we are feeling relaxed, calm and happy, sleep comes naturally. If you want to improve your mood and sleep, consider re-decorating or at least, re-painting your bedroom. Choosing the right color to paint your bedroom can get you in the mood for rest. Here are some of the best and worst colors for bedroom walls.
According to research, blue is considered the best color for bedroom walls and peaceful snoozing. So, if you are trying to create serene space, we recommend choosing a muted blue. This color is calming and relaxing, and relaxation is conducive to sleep. Thanks to receptors in our retinas called ganglion cells; our brain is particularly receptive and responsive to the color blue. The ganglion cells are sensitive to this color more than any else, and they send your mind a message that you are in a calm and safe environment. This is also important because it helps to lower your heart rate and blood pressure.
According to certain surveys, those who have blue bedrooms enjoy a bit less than full 8 hours of sleep a night. That is significantly more than most Americans get. According to CDC, a third of adults in the US get less than 7 hours of sleep each night. To sleep better, it’s best to change your sleep habits and practice better sleep hygiene. However, small things like painting your bedroom blue may also help and be one step forwards to less sleepless nights.
According to other studies, around 60% of blue bedroom owners wake up feeling happy and restful.
If you don’t like blue, there are also other sleep inducing colors that can help you snooze a bit better and increase your chances of waking up in the morning feeling refreshed.
According to our survey, owners of yellow bedrooms sleep around 7 hours and 40 minutes every night, which is very close to sleep time of blue bedroom owners.
Green bedroom owners spend around 7 hours and 36 minutes of sleep each night. These sleepers also showed a higher tendency to wake up in the morning feeling positive and happy.
It may seem odd, but silver is also a sleep inducing color. So, if you don’t prefer bright colors, you can paint your bedroom silver. Survey participants with silver bedrooms get only 3 minutes less of sleep than those with green bedrooms.
Orange is a very warm and relaxing color, and it’s no wonder it can help you sleep better. Some people also believe this color can help with indigestion. Orange bedroom owners spend around 7 hours and 28 minutes sleeping every night.
We have briefly discussed some of the best colors for bedroom walls and peaceful sleep. However, are there some colors you should avoid in your bedroom? According to some studies and multiple surveys, people with gray, brown, or purple bedrooms sleep worse and get less than 7 hours of sleep per night.
Purple is definitely considered the worst bedroom color for sleep. According to surveys, purple bedroom owners get only 6 hours of sleep per night. Purple is typically a color that activates the mind and boosts one’s creativity. Since purple is a very mentally stimulating color, it may contribute to more vivid dreaming or even nightmares.
Gray is not bold and strong like purple. On the contrary, people report gray depresses them and makes them feel uninspired. Averagely speaking, people with gray bedrooms only sleep 6 hours and 12 minutes per night.
Similar to gray, brown is gloomy, dark, and a bit of depressing. Instead of calming you, it creates a sense of restlessness, which may prevent you from falling asleep.
Red is a very passionate, energetic and stimulating color. Some people believe it can increase blood pressure and inspire you to move, and simply be more active. Unfortunately, this is not good at all for sleep.
Unlike adults, studies have shown that young children, especially those under the age of 8, prefer warm colors than cool colors. When decorating a room for your baby or toddler, you should take this difference into account.
Since primary colors are too stimulating, it’s still recommended to avoid them, and opt for softer shades or warmer tones. This way, your little one will feel happy and cozy while still being able to fall asleep peacefully.
Choosing a bedroom color for older kids is simple because you can ask them what they prefer. Make sure you also incorporate your child’s favorite theme into their bedroom design. Beautiful murals depicting the night sky, the forest or jungle scenes provide the kids with a pleasant and relaxing backdrop to fall asleep in.
The science of colors is definitely helpful when choosing the right bedroom color for sleep. However, it is important to say that this science is far from exact and that personal preferences also play an essential role in how a particular room color makes you feel. Take the science into consideration, but also, always select a color that has a personal and positive meaning to you. If you don’t like blue, simply don’t use it. If you are drawn to green shades, and not blue tones, painting your bedroom olive will definitely make you feel better than opting for sky blue. At the end of the day, if you are fighting insomnia, decorating your room won’t make it go away. However, all the little things are important, and even a small detail like a change of bedroom color can help you sleep slightly better.
Apart from choosing the right color, are there any else considerations you should have in mind when painting your bedroom for sleep?
Whatever color you choose, you should always select lighter or pastel shades of the color. According to feng shui, best colors for bedroom are those that are neutral, and earthy because they are calming and enhance positive energy. If a color is too bright, it will stimulate you, and make you feel more alert, This is not good for sleep, because instead of feeling alert, you need to wind down in order to be able to fall asleep. So, if you want to make a statement, leave it for your living room, and ensure the bedroom stays relaxing and serene.
It is also vital to use flat paint, and never something with an eggshell or glossy finish. Golly finishes are great to make space look bigger and brighter, but it can reflect light which can disturb sleep. Flat paints absorb more light and feel a lot softer. Light, cozy and soft are all the things you want in your bedroom if you are trying to create your personal sleep sanctuary.
When it comes to color accents, you should also be careful. The perfect color accents should complement each other and be parallel to each other on a color wheel, never contrasting. When two colors are contrasting, they will stimulate your eyes and brain which may disrupt sleep. On the flip side, complementary colors will relax you and help you to unwind.
Once you have picked the perfect bedroom color, you should also cater to your other senses. In addition to paint color, consider sound, touch, and smell when creating a sleep sanctuary. For example, it’s essential to set the lighting properly, and to choose the best color light for sleep properly. A bedroom that has a white light may be too bright, and therefore negatively affect your circadian rhythms and the hormone melatonin that controls it. Melatonin is stimulated by light, and bright lighting can enhance its production, making you feel more alert and unable to fall asleep.
Unpleasant noise can also easily mess up with your sleep. In case you are dealing with a loud roommate, a snoring partner or a barking dog, try to use earplugs or white noise machines to either block or at least mask the irritable sounds.
Finally, you have to pay close attention to the comfort of your bed. Whatever you do to improve your sleep environment won’t work if you are still sleeping on an old and saggy mattress. Your sleeping surface must be firm, supportive, comfortable and cooling.
The room you sleep in should always be reasonably cool. Also, it’s vital to open the windows every day to let some fresh air in. This seems like common knowledge and logical things to do, but since we are all so busy, we often to forget to do the simplest things, and usually, these are the things that help us the most.
Lastly, you should also pay attention to your scents. The smell of fresh sheets, and for example lavender, is perfect for helping your body relax after a very long day, and prepare you to sleep.
Co-founder of Counting Sheep and Sleepaholic
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