A good night’s sleep is all part of being happy and healthy. It’s essential to allow our bodies to rest and repair, and can make a noticeable difference to how we feel during the day – if you’ve ever tried to do a full day’s work on reduced sleep, you’ll know how groggy and annoyed you probably felt. In fact, many of us will work hard to make sure that we’re dozing off peacefully each night by choosing comfortable sheets, blackout curtains and perhaps even having rules around screen time in the evening.
But have you considered how the colour of your bedroom impacts your mood and sleep? In this post, we explore how to choose the perfect shade to help you get the rest you need.
Decide on how you want your room to feel
Part of choosing a colour scheme is deciding how you want your room to look and feel. Do you want something calm and spa-like? Use neutral colours. Do you want to go for bolder tones that invoke nature? Use greens or blues. Or do you want something that will make you feel bright and cheerful? Yellow, orange or pink might be a good choice.
Colour theory suggests that your choice of shade may actually influence your emotions, so make sure to do your research before you steam ahead. Especially if you struggle to sleep, it could be worth opting for a calming colour and saving the bright tones for another room. Painting your ceiling the same colour as your walls can also help soothe the eyes and make for a more relaxing space.
Consider the orientation
The light that you get into your room will depend on which way the window is facing. In turn, this affects how the paint looks and how your space feels. Whilst you might love a certain shade of blue, for example, it will tend to look darker in a north-facing space as opposed to a south-facing space, where it will look lighter.
This can also change throughout the day, especially in east and west-facing rooms, as the sun moves across the sky. You tend to be in your bedroom first thing in the morning and last thing at night, so you’ll need to consider where the light falls during these times to get your room looking its best when you’re using it. You may want to test samples on different walls to see how the colour looks in low and bright light.
Take inspiration from your existing furnishings
To ensure that your room feels cohesive, you’ll want to consider the furniture and furnishings that you already have. Most of us won’t change our bed frame or curtains every time we paint a room, for example, so they’ll need to work with your new colour scheme. Not only does this reduce cost, but it saves you from getting rid of perfectly usable items, which is more sustainable.
Incorporating your furnishings into your colour scheme doesn’t mean that everything has to be the same colour – instead, you can refer to the colour wheel to pick complementary colours. Just ensure that you don’t go too overboard and have too many shades in one room, otherwise, you might not find going to bed as restful as you’d hoped.
Images: Unsplash
