A bedroom should be a place where you feel comfort, and a bedroom should not just be a room with a bed in it. The lighting in your bedroom can play a significant role in helping you to unwind from the day and to have better sleep pattern and waking up without the shock of bright lights in your bedroom. However, many people tend to ignore this when creating their bedroom and simply buying a ceiling fixture for the room.
By understanding how to create the right lighting for your bedroom, you will feel more comfortable in your space and will have a better sense of how your bedroom work with your body. Good lighting for your bedroom should work in harmony with your bodys natural rhythms and should not work against your bodys natural sleep cycles. Your bedroom lighting should feature areas of warmth to allow you to read before you sleep.
Lighting areas in your bedroom for dressing up and creating a soft glow throughout the bedroom will allow your body to signal to your brain that it is time to sleep. By understanding the proper use of lighting in your bedroom, you will no longer feel as if you are fighting against your bedroom. Instead, you will be designing your sleep space to accommodate your life.
There are a few ideas that will allow you to create a cozy sleep space in your bedroom, but these idea will not turn your bedroom into a science project. Layered lighting options allow individuals to create the perfect sleep space. The use of various types of lighting will allow the bedroom to transform from a functional space into a cozy sleep space.
This will ensure that the bedroom does not have the flat look that many individual get when only using the ceiling lighting in their sleep space alone. You can use layered lighting for a variety of purposes to make your sleep space more comfortable.
Great Lighting Ideas for a Cozy Bedroom
1. Table Lamps
Using table lamps on either side of the bed will provide the perfect lighting for reading and viewing your phone before sleep.
Use lamps that have fabric shades in off-white colors to provide the comfort of bedroom lighting without the harshness of the light reflecting off the bedroom walls. Additionally, position the lamps to ensure the light from the light bulb is approximately level with your eyes when you are sitting up in your bed. Using these types of lamps will allow them to become decorative items throughout the day in your bedroom.
2. String Lights
String lights hung on the headboard will add a sense of comfort to your bedroom without looking juvenile in your sleep space. Use warm white bulbs in your string lights so they do not reflect the color green or blue into your sleep space. Additionally, allow the string lights to have some looseness in their hangings so they will create arcs of light into the sleep space instead of reflecting off the walls of the bedroom.
This lighting option works best in bedrooms with high ceiling. Additionally, be sure to hide the power cord of the string lights behind the bed or dresser in the bedroom to maintain the appearance of the sleep space.
3. Wall Sconces
Wall sconces on either side of the bed will free up space on your nightstand.
Additionally, they will provide an upward glow to the sleep space so shadows under your eyes is eliminated. Choose wall sconces that allow you to adjust the angle of the lights to direct them towards the books or objects that you read on in your sleep space. These will eliminate the need for overhead lighting in your sleep space that may be out of reach.
Additionally, you will no longer need to worry about where the outlets is placed in the sleep space. These sconces will add a permanent element to the sleep space that you will enjoy every time you enter your bedroom.
4. Salt Lamps or Himalayan Salt Fixtures
Salt lamps or Himalayan salt fixtures provide a unique light color for your sleep space.
Additionally, the yellowish ambers created by these lamps have been shown to interfere less with the body’s production of sleep hormone melatonin. Position the salt lamp on a dresser in the sleep space so that it will provide a soft light to your sleep area. Additionally, since each salt lamp is naturally made, no two lamp will have the same appearance.
You can enjoy this unique element in your sleep space that commercial light bulb cannot provide.
5. Dimmable Overhead Lights
Using dimmable overhead lights with fabric shades can provide added comfort to your sleep space. These shades will reflect the light into your sleep area instead of creating glare on your bedroom walls.
Use an overhead bulb that has a fabric shade that will allow you to change the lighting in the sleep space with the use of a dimmer switch. Additionally, set the brightness of the overhead lights to approximately 30 percent to mimic the ambiance of a candle without the fire hazard and smoke that candles creates. Position the overhead lights so that the fabric shade is roughly two-third the width of your bed.
This will allow for the light to not appear too small in your sleep space.
6. Candles
Candles are an option for providing an ambiance to your sleep space. Use soy or beeswax candles instead of paraffin candles because they produce less smoke when burned.
Choose candles that smell of calming scents like lavender, cedar, or vanilla. Use a metal tray to hold three candle of varying heights. This will allow you to avoid having the candles topple over while you are using them.
Additionally, ensure that you allow the candles to burn for one hour prior to bedtime to ease your mind into sleep. The flickering light from a candle will provide an effect upon your sleep space that will aid in slowing your breathing and your heartbeat. Be sure to blow out the candles before you enter your sleep space.
7. LED Strip Lights
Using LED strip lights behind your headboards or floating shelves will add drama to your sleep space. Choose LED strip lights of warm white or amber lighting to provide the comfort to your sleep space. Ensure the LED strip lights have a remote so you can control the brightness of the lights in your sleep area.
The LED strip lights will create a floating effect in your sleep space. This type of lighting is best used in minimalist sleep spaces. The light from LED strip lights can highlight a specific element of your sleep space.
8. Floor Lamps
Floor lamps can be used in the sleep space to provide additional ambient lighting. Place a floor lamp in one or both corner of the sleep space. Additionally, use arc lamps that will shine the light where you want it, such as on your feet when you are seated on the bed.
Ensure the floor lamps have heavy bases so they will not fall over when you walk into your sleep space. Additionally, floor lamps use fabric shades to provide additional comfort to the sleep space. Use a tall floor lamp in the sleep space so the light reach the ceiling.
This will be useful if you have a sleep space with low ceilings.
9. Smart Bulbs
Smart bulbs that can change brightness and color throughout the day can be used in your sleep space. Set the bulbs to use cool white light around 5000 Kelvin in the morning to simulate the sunlight.
Change the lights to warm white lights of 2700 Kelvin in the evening. This will train your bodys circadian rhythm to adjust to the sleep cycle. Additionally, smart bulbs with voice control will eliminate the need to search for the light switch in your sleep space when you are half asleep.
The initial cost of these bulbs is worth it if you want to avoid the sound of an alarm when you naturaly wake up in the morning. Creating a cozy sleep space is not done by purchasing every new trend in lighting. Creating a cozy sleep space is about understanding how lighting affect the sleep cycle.
It is about understanding how lighting affects your mood while in your sleep space. Above all, it is about understanding how lighting affects your perception of your sleep space. Find one or two idea that will solve some of the issues in your sleep space.
Then, begin to apply each idea to create the most comfortable sleep space for yourself. You will thank yourself in the future for the sleep you will get and the appreciation you will have for the lighting in your sleep space every time you enter your bedroom.
