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Take control of your sleep by incorporating these decorative bedroom ideas to help alleviate sleepless nights and ease transitions into unfamiliar spaces.

Especially for those among us who would readily self-identify as homebodies, some may recall bouts of endless tossing and turning while getting accustomed to a new home or spending the night in a foreign land. According to the people who study brains for a living, this is all perfectly normal – as we take into account novel sensations in the new environment and the heightened level of information processing disrupts our normal sleep cycles. While this temporary state can be overcome with time and habituation, we have found some methods of crafting a bedroom that will make even the most wakeful and restless feel comforted and at home almost immediately.

Refreshing Atmosphere

Much like plants and all living beings, people require air and light to survive – with access to an abundance of both leading to distinctly luxurious and comfortable spaces in the same way that gilded decorations make for unmistakably opulent interiors. Gusto Design maintains a generous stretch of windows in this pictured bedroom to enable the ingress of ample sunlight, while preserving floor space and air volume with the selection of modern furnishings. In all climates, windows warmed by sunlight inadvertently result in higher temperatures on the interior during the day – which necessitates the addition of a fan (or some other form of air circulation) in spaces where air would otherwise remain stagnant.

Tender Trappings

While a bright and airy ambiance results in an undeniably attractive space, people of all ages are soothed when swaddled in soft fabrics and sheltered in relative darkness - in the same way that nearly all beings find comfort in a nest, berth, or alcove for rest. Just as moss-lined hollows may have been the epitome of comfort and security for our ancestors, we are calmed by subtle tactile sensations and an incorruptible sense of privacy.

In the pictured bedroom decorated by Metrics Global, a balance between clarifying brightness and comforting privacy is afforded with a combination of blackout curtains and soft lighting fixtures.

Tip: An abundance of comforting tactile sensations helps to lull a wakeful mind to sleep. If your bedroom feels empty, throw some fabric around.

Immaculate Impressions

Regardless of where we find the most comfort on the spectrum of order and chaos, a mind in pursuit of sleep would be hounded by a barrage of unwelcome sensations within a cluttered space. A restless and wandering mind expends greater energy in noticing and encoding within memory the unnecessary details of a random mess, detracting from the natural waning of conscious mental processes that typically occur before sleep.

Decorated by Nu Infinity, the pictured bedroom is made conducive to sleep with a neutral palette, minimal decoration, and discrete storage compartments helping to limit the presence of distracting visual sensations that would otherwise become points of fixation in the restless mind.

Tip: While cleanliness is a universal ideal, a stark bedstead may not be a comforting sight. Without some accessories in plain view, a completely empty bedroom may appear closer to a furniture showroom than an actual bedroom.

Plush Surfaces

Fine textiles have been highly prized ever since one of history’s first recorded acts of industrial espionage resulted in the manufacture of silk fabrics for the elite of Eastern Roman society – with the association between prosperity and high-thread count fabrics prevailing even in this age of genetically-modified silkworms and mass-produced fibres.

An abundance of cloth induces sleep by dampening sound, rendering hard surfaces soft, and providing comforting tactile sensations, and when accompanied by a high-quality mattress - as demonstrated in the pictured bedroom decorated by the JCS Design Project, the result is a space that draws and lulls even the most restless into slumber.

Soothing Hues

Whether the various effects of colours on our psyches are in fact the result of biology or cultural heritage, most people agree that colours evoke specific emotions. Some attribute the tranquil effects of the colour blue to the association with cloudless skies and majestic expanses of water - but despite the colour being a relatively recent innovation that is rarely expressed in nature, there is a surprising degree of consensus across the globe regarding the calming effects of blue. As demonstrated by Surface R, rendering a bedroom in any of the various shades of blue will imbue the space with calming and sleep-inducing vibes.