How to Optimize Your Hotel Room to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep in a hotel can be tricky. Sometimes there is unexpected noise or the air conditioner doesn’t work and you have to improvise in your hotel room to get a good night’s sleep, as travel writer David Farley discovered on a recent trip to Bangkok.
This post was originally posted on the Van Winkle website .
“You know you are in love,” wrote the great philosopher Dr. Seuss, “when you cannot sleep, because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
I was not in love. And I really wanted to sleep. I arrived in Bangkok in the evening after 21 hours and two sleepless flights. I was exhausted. It was 11 p.m. local time, but my body believed it was still in New York, where, under normal circumstances, it should have taken me somewhere for lunch. I was nervous, nervous and a little anxious, as always when I come to a new place. My hotel was a five star body care palace. This should be a place for good sleep. After all, if everything is kept to a minimum, isn’t this what hotels are for: good sleep business?
And yet there were problems: my curtains did not close completely. A digital alarm clock with glowing green numbers illuminated the room like a spotlight. The noise of the city was heard, not to mention the elevator opening and closing right outside my door, penetrating the walls of my room.
Hotels, of course, should be for sleeping. But as competition grows and profit margins shrink, properties are undergoing a string of trials to win over the well-to-do and sophisticated. At the ridiculous end of the spectrum, several hotels offer psychiatric pets. More sensibly, but still a little extreme, others promise fragrant butlers and wake-up calls from celebrities.
At the perfectly logical end of the spectrum is Rebecca Robbins, the resident sleep expert at the Benjamin Hotel in New York. Robbins has a PhD in sleep studies and talks about sleep the way most people talk about the weather. I asked her for advice to travelers looking for the best night out, no matter which hotel they call home for the night.
First, Robbins advised, secure your privacy: ask for a room at the back of the hotel or away from the elevator . “Noise above 60 decibels can disrupt our sleep,” she said.
Assuming you’ve already checked in and jumped into bed, it’s probably too late (or just too awkward) to change rooms.
“If all else fails,” Robbins said, ” bring earplugs .”
Second, pay attention to the heat : “Maintain the air temperature at 65 degrees,” Robbins told me. “This is the optimum temperature for sleeping. Once you check in, turn the thermostat 65 degrees. “(That’s about 18 degrees Celsius.) Warm rooms can actually cause nightmares, according to a good doctor.
How about that annoying opening in the curtains? In some countries, such as Croatia, five-star hotels are required by law to completely darken their windows. Thailand doesn’t seem to be one of those countries (or my particular hotel was breaking the law). Robbins suggested that clothespins should be brought to cover the annoying gap in the curtains. I had an even better solution. I fastened three clothes hangers to two curtains, thus closing the opening.
And this alarm clock? I didn’t want to turn him off because he woke me up eight hours later. Robbins suggested an eye mask .
Personally, I hate sleeping with eye masks, so instead I just grabbed a bath towel, folded it three times and put it in front of the clock. To be on the safe side, I took another bath towel, rolled it up and laid it on the floor outside the door to keep out the light.
Eight hours later, I was really woken up by an annoying alarm clock. My hotel tricks worked: I slept through the night and felt refreshed. My room was darker and cooler than usual, which made for a sound sleep.
“I love to sleep,” Ernest Hemingway once said. “My life tends to crumble when I’m awake, you know?”
I knew exactly what he was talking about. But on this day, having a good rest, I can keep everything together and get the most out of my first day in Bangkok.
Hack Your Hotel To Get The Best Sleep You Can | Van Winkle