Decking out your hotel room for maximum chill
I spend so much of my time in hotel rooms, and have had all kinds of experiences in them. Love me a good 2am evacuation/zero hours of sleep/strange noise that I cannot find and that will be the death of me. I also averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night until I was 22, and every now and again the old insomnia will check in on me, especially when I am away from my home and comforts.
Because of this I travel with a few tools and have a few tricks that I like to implement whilst staying in a hotel.
1. I always travel with a white noise machine. I have blown up two whilst away from the USA; but they are perfect for wiping out any background noise. They also stop it from being too quiet – which is another problem for me.
2. I never turn the TV on. I can’t remember the last time I watched TV whilst in a hotel room, and we don’t own one at home. I prefer to read or watch shows on my laptop. Which brings me to point number three…
3. Turn off all electronics after five pm. This is wind down time for me, and I make sure my iPhone’s display is turned down very low and is the correct color tone.
4. Keep a window open if possible. I don’t like air conditioning, and if I can have circulating air I will take it.
5. Sleep with an eye mask. Just in case the room is lighter than you would desire – plus whenever I put on my eye mask it is a signal for my body to sleep. Just like Pavlov’s dog.
6. Unpack every time you hit a new hotel. I like to keep my room very tidy and organized, and to unpack each trip helps to ground me.
7. Avoid turning on lights after dark if possible. I will use the bedside lamp if I need it, but I try very hard to avoid bright lights after dark.
8. And finally, I only ever get in the bed when it is time to sleep. All other times I am using other furniture. Never eat in bed!