Super Power of Sleep: 5 Ergonomic Tips for Better Rest

If you wake up feeling drained, your sleep ergonomics could be to blame. Sleep ergonomics encompasses the habits, furniture, and products that affect your rest. Disruptions to your senses—taste, smell, touch, sight, and sound—can all interfere with sleep quality.

Optimize Your Sleep Environment for Better Rest

Did you know your sleep environment and habits play a critical role in how refreshed you feel each morning? By addressing key elements like taste, smell, touch, sight, and sound, you can create an ideal setting for restorative sleep. Dr. Shire offers the following recommendations:

1. Taste: Don’t go to bed hungry. Have a 200-calorie snack about 90 minutes before bed. Opt for foods high in fiber and protein, such as fruit, oatmeal, peanut butter, or cheese.
2. Smell: Scents can stimulate alertness or promote relaxation. Use calming and soothing scents like lavender, chamomile, or mint. Fresh air can also help—open windows or use an air filter.
3. Touch: Ensure a clean and cozy environment with natural, breathable materials like cotton, down, linen, or silk. Choose well-fitting, high-thread-count products for moderate or cool comfort and long-lasting use.
4. Sight: Darkness helps cue melatonin, the “sleep hormone.” Use 45-watt, non-halogen, natural light bulbs and install black-out curtains to create a dark sleeping space.
5. Sound: Eliminate disruptive noises with a white noise machine. Choose an effective alarm that is the least jarring to wake up to.

Why Sleep Ergonomics Matter

Poor sleep hygiene builds on itself and causes you to wake up more exhausted than the night before. Common symptoms of unrestful sleep include inability to concentrate, irritability, depression and difficulty learning. Something as simple as uncomfortable sheets could be the culprit to something more complex like an ill-fitting mattress/pillow based on your body and weight.

Mattresses and Pillows

We’ve all heard of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We want to find you the mattress that is juuuuust right. You want a mattress with a firmness that allows you to keep a straight spine when you’re lying down. Misaligned joints = pain!

Lighter weight: Opt for soft firmness because less support is needed. If it’s too firm, you’ll discover uncomfortable pressure points, most likely in your hips and shoulders, where blood circulation is lost.

Average weight: Choose medium firmness. A good test is to slide your hand under your low back. If you can get it in without feeling too much movement, it’s a good sign of proper firmness.

Heavier weight: A good choice is a firm mattress because it gives the most support and curves to the body/joints better, so you don’t feel like you’re sinking in and misaligning your joints.