Have you caught yourself making rookie mistakes at work recently? Are your drives to and from work increasingly interrupted by reckless drivers seeming to come out of nowhere? Have you noticed that you seem to be gaining weight or that your face is starting to look puffier? Are your eyes ringed by dark circles that absolutely no moisturizing cream can liven up? Do you struggle to translate your thoughts into sentences? Are you feeling less and less inclined to be intimate with your significant other? The combination of these seemingly disparate factors can lead us to feel like we’ve been somehow cursed, but they’re all symptoms of a very singular problem… You’re not getting enough sleep.

Of course in today’s hyper tense, latte swilling professional culture, it’s little wonder that the steady diet of stress and anxiety we face daily can impede our ability to relax into a restful night’s sleep. We’re working harder for longer hours than ever before. We need to balance wage repression with a steadily rising cost of living, and on top of that we need to contend with our human relationships, personal obligations and the fact that we’re too busy to cook nutritious food for ourselves and resort to high calorie, low nutrition convenience foods to sustain ourselves through those long work days. While your lifestyle and career can prevent you from getting the shut eye your body desperately needs, your home itself could also be playing a part in your crippling insomnia. Even if you feel like you’re getting plenty of sleep it’s possible that you’re waking up several times during the night without remembering it or having your quality REM sleep interrupted by a combination of factors around the home. Here are some common offenders that plague many a home, and what you can do to stop them.

Don’t let the bedbugs bite

You could be forgiven for thinking that bedbugs weren’t a problem in today’s society. That’s because for the decades following World War II the widespread use of insecticides like chlordane and DDT kept bed bug populations at bay. These chemicals have since, however, been found to have carcinogenic properties and so their discontinuation has led to a resurgence in bed bug populations. Bed bugs can mess with your sleep as their bites (while not initially painful) will result in a rash of itchy red lumps which can seriously interrupt your sleep. While these unwelcome guests are hard to spot they are not invisible. They are reddish brown in color and usually between 1mm and 7 mm in diameter. Even if you’re unable to detect them you can recognize a bed bug bite as it is red, circular and looks a lot like a cigarette burn. 

While some may insist that you can vacuum bed bugs out of your bed, it’s worth getting a professional exterminator like ABC Home & Commercial on the scene. Bed bugs are not confined to beds and can lurk in furniture or carpets all over the house, and so you may not be able to completely rid your home of infestation on your own. 

All the plants are outside

We may have been living in houses rather than caves for quite some time now, but there’s still something in our reptilian brain that means we’re most at home when we have regular contact with the natural world. That doesn’t mean that you need to start sleeping in the garden or even opening the window. Even bringing the humble houseplant into your home can be a natural aid to sleep. As well as the psychological benefits that come with all houseplants, some also have natural aromatic properties that can lull us into a restful and natural sleep. Common favorites include;

Lavender- It’s sleep inducing properties have been used for centuries

Aloe vera- One of the best air purifiers around (just ask the good people at NASA)

Gardenia- Studies have shown that this fragrant plant can be as effective as valium

Areca Palm- Dry air can cause sinus problems that keep us awake at night. Not only does the Areca Palm help to purify the air in our bedrooms it also releases moisture into the air.

All those allergens

If you fail to drop off due to a stuffy nose and runny eyes, or are awoken by difficulty breathing, your home and bedroom may be packed full of allergens that are keeping you awake at night. They can lurk in your pillows, your mattress and, yes, under your bed. Thus you should make sure that you use non allergenic bedding and vacuum your bedroom regularly with a HEPA filter.