Feng Shui for Sleep

July 11, 2022

Sleep is a pretty valuable commodity these days. Whether you struggle with insomnia, anxiety, or other circumstances that impact your ability to have a restful night, you are not alone!

While it’s always important to look at any sleep issues with a trusted healthcare professional, there are many ways that feng shui can complement and support the other health and lifestyle changes you may be making. Read on to learn some of our best feng shui tips for setting up your space to help sleep come a little more easily.

Position Your Bed for Rest

The first thing we always look at when someone is struggling with sleep is the position of their bed. Ideally, your bed should be in the command or commanding position, which means that you are able to see your bedroom door without being directly in line with the door when you are lying or sitting up in bed. This will generally put the bed diagonally across from the entrance to the room. This allows you to see anyone entering the room, without being directly in their path.

If you can’t move your bed into command because the shape of your bedroom doesn’t allow it, you can use a mirror instead: place the mirror so that you can see the reflection of your bedroom door from your bed. However, the best option is always to move your bed if you can.

Being in the commanding position helps with sleep because it helps you feel safer and more at ease. When your back is to the door, your fight or flight response is activated, even if you aren’t consciously aware of it. When you’re sleeping, you are in a passive, yin state, so it’s important to place your bed in a way that encourages rest and relaxation as much as possible.

Create a Space for Relaxation

When space is at a premium, we sometimes have to use our bedrooms for multiple functions. You might have your desk in your bedroom, or perhaps you live in a studio apartment where your living area is in the same space as your bed. If you do need your bedroom to be a multifunctional space, try to create zones for different activities. If your home office is in your bedroom, for example, do your work at your desk and keep your work materials in that area. Try to keep your bed as a rest and relaxation zone.

If you do have more space, it’s best to dedicate your entire bedroom to just sleep and intimacy. It’s best not to keep active items like exercise equipment in the bedroom. If you can, avoid having TVs and computers in the bedroom as well, as these items create a lot of fire qi and can be too stimulating for a bedroom. If you can’t remove these things, you can unplug them or cover them at night to create a more relaxing environment.

Consider the Flow of Energy

When we look at a client’s home, we always pay attention to how easy or hard it is to get to the bedroom and the bed. If you have to navigate around clutter or tight spaces to get into bed, that can impact your sleep as well as other areas of your life. Ideally, it should be easy for you to get to your bed — if it’s not, you may want to make a few shifts. Your bedroom door should also open easily. If you have a lot of clutter behind your door, or a lot of things hanging on your door, it’s a good idea to let go of some of those items or find a new location for them. This allows energy to enter into your bedroom without being obstructed.

Notice also what’s happening above and below your bed. Having things close to your head while you’re sleeping, like a shelf above your headboard, can add pressure and stress. If you have art above your bed, is it art that feels relaxing and uplifting? Avoid art that is too stimulating or provocative in the bedroom — these items are best in more active areas of your home.

When it comes to the space under your bed, make sure you don’t have anything that’s emotionally charged or especially active, like divorce papers, books, or shoes. Ideally, it’s best not to have anything under your bed at all. If you do have to use that space for storage, stick to soft, sleep-related items like extra pillows and blankets.

Choose a Restful Color

If you really want to make sure you’re choosing the best feng shui bedroom color for you, we’d recommend working one-on-one with a consultant. A trained feng shui practitioner will be able to help you choose a supportive color based on your energy and situation.

That said, here are a few colors we love to use in bedrooms, and what they mean in feng shui:

• Yellow: Sunny yellows are bright and uplifting, while deep yellows are stable, nurturing, and grounding.
• White: White is related to precision, joy, and organization, so it’s a great color to use if you want to cultivate more of these qualities. It also provides a neutral canvas that works beautifully with different accent colors.
• Green, Teal, and Blue: These colors are great when you’re feeling lethargic or low. They are connected to growth and help to increase vitality.
• Pink and Peach: Light pinks and peaches are soothing and relate to self-care. Pink can help you invite more softness into your life, and peach is a great color when you want to attract a romantic partner.

If you’re feeling fearful or struggling with depression, we would recommend staying away from especially dark colors in the bedroom.

Choose the Right Lighting

It’s really important to have the right lighting and window treatments in your space. During the daytime, you’ll want to let in sunlight to clear the qi, and when you’re sleeping, you should be able to block out any light and create a dark environment. In general, we would also recommend staying away from fluorescent lighting.

Prepare Yourself for Sleep

Often, we have a hard time sleeping because we are feeling anxious. If this is the case for you, try finding an activity to help you release some of the stress you’re holding onto. This could be something like meditation, breathwork, or reading a relaxing book. If you want to try a simple breathing technique that we use in BTB feng shui, you can listen to the end of this episode of the Holistic Spaces Podcast!