Ever wondered why you don’t sleep well in a hotel bed?

When you are lying awake on your hotel bed, you might be silently scolding yourself for not being able to fall asleep. The Mattress Warehouse is going to let you in on why you are not falling asleep in that strange bed.

There is a reason that you might struggle to fall asleep at night

You have surely been in this predicament before. You are away from home for a few days and find yourself sleeping in a hotel bed. While you might be enjoying the holiday of your dreams, it is quite likely that you are not going to be getting a whole lot of sleep. You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that this is completely ironic, seeing that you are enjoying a holiday but find that you are not going to be sleeping much at all. No matter how stunning and relaxing the setup is, regardless of the sounds of waves lapping on the shore or the absolute quiet away from the city that you have been craving, you are not getting much shut eye.

You are not alone, there are so many out there who are just like you, struggling to sleep in this strange new place. In fact, there is even a term for what you are going through, it is known as the first night effect and many scientists have spent time trying to figure out how this phenomenon works.  At the basis of this theory is that the brain remains partially awake during the night to protect us from any dangers that might harm us, for this reason, the quality of our sleep is affected during the night.

It is all about you staying safe

Your lack of sleep on your first night in a new place is actually all about your safety. Recently a study was released in a journal by the US Brown University, showcased the results from an experiment that measured brain activity during sleep. This study showed that our brains had something unusual going on. During sleep in a new place, the left hemisphere of the brain remains more active than the right hemisphere when you are sleeping, this means that when we lie down to sleep in a new environment, our brains are not going to be fully asleep.

You need a night of good sleep no matter where you are

To make sure that their research was giving them the correct results, the researchers exposed the left hemisphere of participants to the sounds of irregular beeping. When they did this, participants were more likely to be jolted awake from their slumber.

When the same theory was tested on the second night of the experiment, participants were less likely to wake up during the night when the same experiment was dealt out.

Your brain likes to have a routine

At the University of Australia, researchers have uncovered the amazing fact that the brain really likes to have a routine. So when you are staying in a new place you might have difficulty sleeping because your brain is on extra alert in order to protect itself from danger. So any closing of doors or unfamiliar sounds is going to make you super alert and aware of what is going on around you. If you are the type of person who is particularly aware of your surroundings then you might find that you are even more susceptible to the first night effect.

But don’t worry there is hope

If you are the type of person who is often having to travel from place to place and you find yourself in a hotel bed often, your brain is eventually going to get used to being in a new place often. However if you are an infrequent traveller, you might find that this effect can have an influence on your holiday. But there are a few things you can try that will help you to sleep better.

The bottom line is making your body and mind feel as safe and secure as possible so the one thing that you can do is to familiarise yourself with your room and your surroundings. The faster you can get used to your setting, the faster you will be able to fall asleep later. Start by making yourself feel more comfortable and secure by relieving your fears. Another tip for making your rest all the easier when you are going to be staying in a new, strange bed is to make sure that you don’t break up your usual bed routine times. This will promote your body’s sleep cycle and prevent it from further disruption.

We need sleep in order to function, so it is important that we do whatever it takes to make our sleep the best quality possible. The Mattress Warehouse has a number of beds available and many of our beds are ideal for hotel us.