Soothing colours, right scent aid sound sleep

After a stressful day at work, unwind, destress and get a restful sleep by using right fragrances in your surroundings and by choosing a bedroom colour that aid your sleep, suggest experts.

Alphonse Reddy, Founder of Sunday Mattresses, said in a statement: "Each colour has a different impact on each person and can generate a wide array of emotions. Calm is conducive to sleep, therefore, calm colours are the best bedroom colours to get you in a mood to sleep.

"Along with soothing colours, a good fragrance can bring the body and mind into harmony and also promote relaxation""

As for aromatic fragrances, they create a pleasant environment in the bedroom and calms one's mood and nerves, allowing him or her to fall asleep soon, said Jagadish B.S. from Natural Aroma World.

Essential takeaways:

* The colour of your bedroom and decor play a major role in determining how well you sleep. Ganglion cells in our eyes are specialised receptors that are most sensitive to the colours we see and therefore affect how we sleep and feel during the day. It is important to choose a colour theme in your bedroom that will help you relax and induce sleep.

* The colour blue doesn't always make you feel blue. In fact, people sleeping in a room painted blue can get around 7 hours, 52 minutes of sleep every night, the maximum compared to all the other colours of the rainbow. Soothing blue lowers your heart rate and reduces blood pressure, making you get up feeling happy and refreshed.

* Green and yellows come a close second, followed by silver, orange, red and gold. Grey and brown are lower on the list as they make you feel weary, while purple gets you only 5 hours, 56 minutes of sleep as it stimulates the brain promoting vivid dreams or even nightmares - a big no-no to your already excited brain that will keep you up at night and make you get up tired in the morning.

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Scents and fragrances can manipulate your mood and the right smells in your bedroom can go a long way in relaxing your mind and easing you into a deep sleep.

* Scents can trigger physical reactions in our bodies and have lasting effects, long after the scent is gone. The best fragrances that have therapeutic, curative properties and help relieve stress to promote better sleep are Lavender, Chamomile, Citrusy Bergamot, Jasmine, Rose and Sandalwood.

* Choose the right essential oils that you can dab on your wrists, inhale or rub your hands with. You can also add them to your bath before sleep. Lighting aromatic candles with these scents in your bedroom can help relax you and infuse deep, relaxing sleep.

* Try lavender drops on your pillow, or scented eye-masks. Not only is Chamomile tea great for mornings, it works really well before bed too as it refreshes you from stress. Bergamot oil is known to relieve tension and anxiety by reducing heart rate and blood pressure.

* While Jasmine calms the mind, it is also known to boost energy levels. It is great for people who have the restlessness syndrome as this fragrance relaxes their muscles easily before falling asleep. The calming scent of rose is known for its sedative effects while the sweet scent of sandalwood helps you sleep longer.

--IANS

rb/sed