Nothing feels quite as good as a good night of sleep. Not only does it allow us to rest, relax, and restore our minds, it also completely sets the tone for the next day. But there’s one thing that we rarely think about that can make a huge difference in our quality of sleep: lighting. We’ve heard of cube pillows and weighted blankets, but no one talks about how the lights in our bedrooms can impact our all-important Z’s. Customizable smart lighting products like Nanoleaf Elements panels are the perfect tool to let you achieve your sleep goals. Here are 3 bedroom lighting tips to help you get better quality sleep, and to ensure that you sleep tight every night.

Cool blue-toned lighting is perfect during the day, to help boost your productivity and keep you focused throughout the work week. But when it comes to bed time, these lights can actually hinder your sleep. Being exposed to blue light at night suppresses your body’s release of melatonin—the hormone that makes us feel drowsy—and contributes to the hours we spend lying awake in bed. In recent years we’ve become aware of the blue light coming from our phones and computers, but the blue cool-toned lights of our everyday light bulbs are something we rarely consider.

Switching to an ambient bedroom light that has white temperature control can make a huge difference in that late night tossing and turning. With your Nanoleaf Elements panels you can not only choose from a spectrum of warm light, but also select curated lighting Scenes that flow and diffuse across your panels for an even more relaxing experience. By choosing warm white lighting at night and dimming it to a low brightness, our bodies are signaled to begin melatonin production to send us off to dreamland in no time. Learn more about the Benefits of Warm vs Cool Light in Your Space here.

You may not think that getting up from bed to turn off your lights is a big deal, but that action alone can be significantly detrimental to your sleep. A National Sleep Foundation poll found that cool room temperature was one of the most important factors in getting a good night’s sleep. They approximate that the best bedroom temperature for sleep is around 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius), varying slightly from person to person. But if you’ve set your thermostat for the perfect sleeping temperature while in bed, then getting out of your blanket may disrupt your body and cause it to reach suboptimal temperatures.

…While the science is sound, the truth is, sometimes we’re just comfy and don’t want to get up.

In either case, enabling a smart home assistant to control your lights via voice control can be a gamechanger. Using an assistant like Siri or Google Assistant, you can not only change the lighting Scenes on your Elements panels hands-free, but can also turn them on or off by simply saying “Hey Siri, turn off the lights.” As a bonus, if you need to get up in the middle of the night, a command like “Hey Siri, turn the lights to 25% brightness” can stop you from having your eyes suddenly burn with the brightness of a thousand suns.

It doesn’t get more convenient than that.

We love waking up to a blaring alarm ringing in our ears just as much as we love sarcasm. But putting you in an irritated mood right from the jump isn’t the most desirable way to start your morning.

The benefits of using a natural light alarm are well documented, and again backed up by science. Dr. Alex Dimitriu says on the topic “Our circadian system is closely tuned to natural as well as artificial light. Light-based alarm clocks can provide a gentle wake signal, to prepare the body for wakefulness.” When we’re exposed to light in the morning, our body temperature begins to rise, and sleep-inducing hormones like melatonin drop off. This slowly prepares the body for wakefulness, rather than abruptly forcing it onto our system.

With Nanoleaf Elements’ Scheduling feature, you can schedule your lights to turn on gradually in the morning to provide all of the beneficial effects mentioned above. In addition to a gentle wakeup, you’ll be able to bask in the warm ambient light of your panels as you get ready for the day, or set them to cool white light to wake up the senses and set your mind in motion.

With these 3 tips you’ll be all set to enjoy the best sleep of your life, courtesy of Nanoleaf Elements.

Check out our recent blog post for more ideas on How To Get Better Quality Sleep With Smart Lighting.

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