Many bedrooms are now used for multiple purposes – incorporating a gym, office, storage unit, laundry, library, TV room and more. So it's no surprise that both sleep and relationships in homes around the world are suffering badly as a result.
When we implement feng shui, or begin the interiors therapy process, the bedroom is one of the first places we focus on. Why? Because finding ways to sleep better is a crucial element of your health, well-being, career, ability to live life to the full, and of course your relationships; not just with others but most importantly, with yourself.
Feng shui bedroom rules to relieve insomnia
A room that actively prevents the occupants from achieving undisturbed and life-enhancing sleep will be detrimental to all aspects of existence.
Although this article focuses on the master bedroom, these ten top bedroom feng shui tips benefit all other bedrooms too. If your children don’t sleep well, they are potentially being over-stimulated by bright colors and toy distractions around them.
Suzanne is a feng shui consultant, interiors therapist and author of Welcome Home, How Stuff Makes or Breaks your Relationship – available at Amazon. She specializes in understanding the energetic impact of homes and certain possessions may have on all aspects of life, health and relationships, and the ways in which ‘stuff’ can actively prevent people and families from thriving and enjoying the lifestyle they deserve.
1. Create a nurturing environment
Scratchy bedding, saggy mattresses, and thin curtains are a disaster when it comes to sleep or passion. I’m going to suggest you invest in new bedlinen for two reasons.
Firstly, you deserve to feel fabulous in bed, and secondly, investing in the best bed sheets money can buy is helpful for your well-being. In terms of feng shui, new sheets mean you can release bedding shared with a previous partner or used during a time of emotional trauma. Beds retain energetic memories, and you may be inadvertently sleeping with the DNA of ex-partners and your own tears.
Choose soft sustainable Egyptian cotton with a 300+ thread count, silk or bamboo sheets that caress your skin to keep things cool in the bedroom in the summer, and warm through the colder months.
Feng shui is all about a constant flow of ‘chi’ or lifeforce energy through a home and this is as important for sleep as it is during the day. Fresh clean air flowing through the room boosts oxygen availability, assisting breathing and sleep quality to help you wake feeling invincible. Going to bed in a sealed room may result in a dry mouth, throat, eyes and skin, cause a muzzy head and even contribute to constipation. Insufficient fresh air will leave you feeling generally depleted, so if opening a window isn’t possible, leave the bedroom door open a crack to allow air exchange through the night.
Light pollution plays havoc with the circadian rhythms of the body. These are the natural processes that keep us functioning efficiently 24/7. Unless you choose to wake at dawn and sleep at dusk, too much light in the bedroom will leave you feeling permanently jet-lagged, so take the lead from airport hotel rooms and use blackout curtains, at Wayfair, to encourage deep, untroubled sleep.
2. Focus on balance and harmony
We all want to feel balanced in life and the bedroom is the ideal place to start. Matching nightstands and lamps will bring equilibrium to the bed and a solid headboard will bring a sense of strength and stability, all great attributes for love and life.
In feng shui, we avoid metal headboards as they represent the metal element, which can be difficult to sleep with. Most practitioners would recommend wooden headboard, available at Magnolia, or an attractive padded option for maximum comfort. A bed without a headboard puts the occupants at risk of feeling vulnerable and easily disturbed at night.
3. No family photos
I can’t say this often enough, the bedroom is a place for rest, romance, and relaxation. It’s not the place for family mementos, photos of the kids, or your mother-in-law!
If you’re in a loving relationship, display happy photos of you with your beloved and no one else. It’s not the place for pictures of you on your own because they can reinforce feelings of solitude – even in a marriage.
4. Choose art carefully
Select art for the bedroom which describes the type of relationship you want for yourself. This isn’t the place for challenging, miserable, angry, lonely or disruptive art – aside from anything else, it will interfere with slumber, and from a feng shui perspective, we often find life mirrors the art on the wall.
Look carefully at the images and messaging you choose throughout the home, and especially in the bedroom which is the space where we are at our most relaxed and therefore open to subliminal suggestion.
5. Consider your mirror placement
The position of mirrors in a bedroom can have a massive impact on the way the space supports a sleeper. The most important thing to remember is never having a mirror where you can see yourself reflected in bed. There are lots of feng shui reasons for this, but they boil down to the mirror draining lifeforce as you sleep. If you regularly feel exhausted on waking, consider adding etched film, at Amazon, across the glass of mirrored wardrobes, and angle other mirrors away from the bed.
6. Avoid strong colours
Calming gentle colors are superb in a bedroom, with earthy and softer tones contributing to restful sleep. If you’ve chosen strong shades and you’re experiencing any of the following issues, it may be time to tone them down.
Deep blue/purple/black – extremes of emotion, tears, low mood, overwhelm, anxiety, depression
Red/orange/strong pink/bright yellow – anger, rage, burn-out, stress, pressure
Bold green – inflexibility, resistance to change
Choosing the right feng shui bedroom colors can help to create the soothing and energizing environment you need.
7. Clear under the bed
The items kept under the bed can affect the quality of our sleep, and there are a few things I would recommend not storing under the bed. Never keep paperwork, shoes, tech, photos or books under the bed. They will interfere with relaxation and sleep. If you’re divorced and your wedding dress is still under the bed, that’s very bad news for both sleep and a healthy new romance.
The ideal in feng shui is to have a clear space under the bed and clean regularly to prevent dust build-up, but for many smaller homes, that’s simply not viable! We have to get real and make use of all available storage options. I’d encourage you to limit the use of under-bed storage to spare bedlinen, towels, and out-of-season clothes.
8. Conceal the TV and tech
The blue light emitted from a TV is a well-known troublemaker for insomniacs and the sleep deprived. Even the little red standby light seems to bore through the eyelids when sleep is an issue, so if you must have a TV there, turn it off at the socket a minimum of 30 minutes before lights out, and consider bedroom TV ideas for styling or concealing it. Late-night TV and movies, as well as going to sleep with the TV murmuring and flickering in the corner, incite the subconscious part of the brain into action. As the subconscious mind is responsible for 95% of your thinking, the presence of a TV in a bedroom is likely to be a major reason for your brain remaining active throughout the night – it’s no wonder you are exhausted when the alarm bleeps.
Our cell phones are never more than a stretch away, but these too will have a detrimental impact on sleep, especially if they are charging beside you through the night. While long-term research is needed into their impact on health, it appears likely the electromagnetic frequencies emitted by cell phones do impair the quality of sleep. If having your phone close by is essential, position it below head height – on the floor, a low shelf, or in a drawer to distance it from your head. If that’s impractical, a pillow positioned against the nightstand provides a small barrier between head and cell which can help in a more limited way.
9. Put work items away
Many bedrooms now double up as a home office by day with the rise of remote working, but the last thing you need before bed is to be thinking about work. With a little thought, it's perfectly possible to double up on the use of space.
There are a few steps I recommend taking for those who want to activate the career, wealth or opportunity aspects of their home’s feng shui.
First, make it routine to clear the desk each evening. Not only is this more visually rewarding, but it’s also great for starting the new day afresh! Put papers, laptops, and stationery out of sight in a drawer or attractive box. While I acknowledge a bank of screens is more challenging, please do all you can to minimize their impact on your sleep space by powering down and camouflaging them – even with something as simple as a sheet matching your wall color.
10. Of course, declutter
Regular readers will know that clutter is a disaster in any home for a multitude of reasons, and nowhere is this more relevant than the bedroom.
Clutter takes many forms, each of them individual to the person it belongs to, and that’s why it's so important to understand why it was collected in the first place and how to prevent it from creeping back once you have dealt with it. Interiors therapy goes way beyond surface level to release clutter permanently.
With a very basic knowledge of the feng shui areas, it’s clear clutter gathers in the parts of a home which are relevant to the problems people are experiencing in their lives; so if health is a challenge, have a close look at what’s happening in the center of the home (on all floors) and if financial woes are contributing to sleep deficiency, make sure everything in the south-east of the home is something you use, need or love. Anything else is clutter and will be having a detrimental impact on your physical, emotional and financial well-being, so take time to declutter your bedroom and you'll reap the benefits.
Many people find that simply by deleting the everyday stress and irritation caused by clutter, even that hidden in closets and cupboards, sleep and enjoyment of life come more easily. After decluttering, you may also like to consider feng shui bedroom layout options, like ensuring your bed is accessible from each side.
Many relationships founder with the onset of peri-and menopause because sleep deprivation along with hot flushes caused by hormonal fluctuation makes it difficult to share a bed. It can drive both partners to distraction and women feel as though they are ‘going mad’ and even lose their careers and friendships.
Think proactively about ways to manage at home. An air-conditioning unit has saved many marriages, but if that’s just not an option, consider having a duvet each and invest in a couple of cooling mats to interchange through the night.
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