As someone who does a lot of traveling, you must find yourself having difficulty establishing consistent sleeping habits. When you are at home, you have one set of habits. When traveling, you find yourself doing something a bit different.
The reality is your health would benefit if you could find a way to be consistent with the way you sleep. You might find yourself feeling more refreshed and alert on the road when your body understands it’s time to arise, then time to go to bed at night.
What you need are some tips to help you sleep consistently while on the road. With that in mind, here are five tips you might want to consider when not sleeping on your own comfortable mattress.
1. Keep Your Routine as Consistent as Possible
While getting caught up in the excitement of traveling, it’s very easy to get away from the habits you have a home. That’s fine for some of your habits. However, getting away from your normal sleeping habits can be a problem.
As much as you can, you want to go to bed and wake up at the same time no matter where you might be. If you have to adjust the time you go to sleep, it would still be a good idea to try to get the same amount of sleep each night.
2. Get Sleep Accessories
When traveling, you never know what kind of sleeping environment you might encounter. For all you know, the hotel you made reservations at is in the busiest part of town. There could be bright lights shining and plenty of noise coming from the streets.
A smart traveler is a prepared traveler. It would be well worth the investment for you to purchase some key sleeping accessories. At a minimum, you might want to pick up earplugs and a nice sleeping mask. A sound machine or a music playing device would also help if you need sound or a little of your own music to help you relax and fall asleep.
3. Seek Out White Noise
Speaking of sound machines and music playing devices, there are a number of devices out there that put out “white noise.” White noise is static sound that comes with steady and equal intensity no matter the frequency.
The human brain picks up differences in noise. When the brain senses a change in noise, it wakes the individual up. On the road, that can create problems if you have meetings to attend and want your rest. A white noise sound machine could be the prefect solution. By listening to steady sound, your mind will relax, and sleep will be yours.
4. Get Exercise
While traveling, there are parts of your daily routine that you might try to put aside. That’s fine in some areas, but you still want to make sure you stay active and get plenty of exercise. This is particularly important if you are a business traveler. After spending your days sitting in meetings, you probably aren’t exerting much in the way of energy. When bedtime comes, you might not be sufficiently tired. As long as you stay active and get some exercise, it should help you sleep better on the road.
5. The Comforts of Home
It might sound silly, but you might want to consider taking some of your bedding on the road with you. If you have a favorite pillow, taking it with you on the road might help you sleep better. That’s especially true if you tend to find hotel pillows to be a bit uncomfortable. If you have a blanket that you like, you could take that on the road with you as well. Another “pro tip” when traveling is to call a few hotels in the area you are staying to find the one that furnish their rooms with similar mattresses and bedding you use at home. For example, if you are a side sleeper who needs a mattress with medium firmness find a hotel that has those.
Yes, it might seem a little silly for an adult to walk into a hotel lobby with their blanket and or pillow. Do you really care if taking the comforts of home with you on the road is the difference between sleeping poorly or getting a good night’s sleep?
