Does your bed room enhance healthy sleep?

What is really important when sleeping — hints from SAMINA
Whether we are feeling healthy, recreated, vital and good largely is related to our sleep. Unfortunately, a lot of people pay little attention to this fact. Only when problems arise, when it takes a long time to fall asleep or when waking up during the night again and again, most start to deal more closely with their sleep. Here, the bed room, the bed, its content, darkness and magnetic fields are playing an important role, too. Dr. med. h.c. Guenther W. Amann-Jennson knows out of decades of experience which facts you should pay attention to.

“When our health and our well-being is concerned, sleep is a 90-%-factor. Out of this reason, in respect to recreation and relaxation the sleeping room is the most important room in house and apartment from the biological point of view. Viewed in this light, for a healthy and recreational sleep some important criteria concerning bed room, sleeping place and bedding content need to be considered”, sleeping expert Amann-Jennson gets to the heart of it. If possible, the bed room should be a quiet room in house or apartment and sufficiently protected from outside noise by appropriate windows and shutters.

Per person, at least 7.5 m2 room should be calculated, so that enough oxygen is available per night. A tilted window or forced ventilation before going to bed care for sufficient fresh air during the night. Breathable plaster, paints or wood sheeting are advisable for walls and the ceiling. Certain shades like pastel color of yellow, rose or light blue create relaxed atmosphere. Here, the ceilings always should be lighter than the walls.

Prefer wood treated with natural waxes and oils for the floor. In case you are using carpets, preferably use carpets made of sheep wool. If possible, avoid chemic and synthetic materials.

The bed: its size, position and furnishing
The core of the bed room is the bed. The bed and its furnishing also should only be made of natural materials like wood, natural rubber, sheep wool, cotton and so on. Furthermore, the bed surface at least should be 14 inches above the floor, since up to 90 % dust pollution occurs up to 8 inches above the floor. Per person, ideal size of the bed is 38 inches in width and in the length about 8 inches longer than the body length of the sleeping person. Out of the influence of the earth magnetic field, take care that the bed preferably is positioned from north (head) to south (footing) when positioning it in the room.

Darkness and no electronic devices at the sleeping place
“Healthy sleep needs absolute darkness since the production of the sleeping hormone melatonin is taking place via the so-called “dark stimulus”. Light stimuli from out- or inside of the bed room during the night not only disturb the sleep but also increase the risk of diseases, especially of cancer. This is apparent in actual science findings from the University of Tel Aviv”, sleep psychologist Amann-Jennson is calling attention to a most of the time neglected factor.

Out of this reason, shutters or drapes should care for good darkening. Ideal room temperature is between 61°F and 84°F, a perfect humidity is 50-60%.

Best is, to disconnect electric and electronic devices like radio alarm, TV, computer, cordless phones and mobiles during the night. Because, with their emitted electromagnetic pollution they are having a negative impact on sleep. High frequent radiations also might be reflected by mirrors. Out of this reason they should not be in immediate proximity to the bed.

Healthy sleep needs an undisturbed earth-magnetic-field
“Natural magnetic fields have an influence on the organism and on the sleep. The Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry already showed 20 years ago the meaning of the sleeping direction in the earth-magnetic-field. Only sleeping in the north-south-direction lead to an improvement of the deep sleep phases compared to sleeping in east-west-direction. Nowadays, on most sleeping places the earth-magnetic-field is disturbed due to technical field influences or metal-accumulation. Here, the earth-magnetic-field needs to be stabilized with a special effect carrier. Double blind studies have shown that this stabilization leads to huge improvement of the sleeping quality”, the expert goes into detail.