Get better sleep and more energy

1  Hypnotic wallpaper

Aid your chances of a good night’s sleep with wallpaper patterned with ever decreasing green circles. That’s what Manchester City opted for when they fitted bedrooms for their players in their new £200m training complex.

 

 2  Blackout curtains 

Make sure you have the right curtains to help you sleep. “Ideally you want complete darkness,” says sleep coach Nick Littlehales, who has advised Real Madrid and Manchester United.
 


 

 3  Dawn-simulating alarm clock 

Total darkness is great for sleep but terrible for waking up, so get yourself a special alarm clock that simulates dawn using an LED bulb. “If you set the alarm for 6.30am, in the 30 minutes before that it will slowly bring daylight into the room, stimulating hormones,” explains Littlehales.

 

 4  High-efficiency particle filter 

Use a portable high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filter to improve air quality, allowing you to sleep uninterrupted all night. “The air can be full of things that make it more difficult to breathe through your nose while you are asleep,” says Littlehales. “That can lead to snoring and even mild cases of sleep apnoea, when you stop breathing for a short period.”
 


 

5  Wooden floor 

Carpets retain pollutants and allergens that affect air quality and can damage your health. Install a wooden floor, which is easier to mop. “When you are talking marginal gains, if you keep the place clean it can make a big difference,” says Littlehales.

 

 6  White-noise app 

Still struggling to sleep? If noise is keeping you awake, hang blankets against windows and put a rolled-up towel under the door. As a last resort, get the White Noise Free Sleep Sounds phone app, which pumps ambient sound into the room. “It’s a low thrum that you’d get from air conditioning,” says Littlehales. “It’s womb-like.”

 

7  Symmetrical bedside tables 

Keep the room balanced to meet feng shui requirements. Have two bedside tables, one on each side of the bed. Ideally the tables should have round rather than square edges – otherwise known as ‘poison arrows’ – so as not to prevent chi energy from being focused towards you. Crikey.

 

 8  TRX trainer 

Want to do a little exercise? Hang a TRX suspension trainer from the wall or door. It’s unobtrusive when you don’t need it but provides an easy exercise tool when you need it. Try these TRX workouts.



For more tips see:

Snooze you win

Five top tips to help you doze

Foods that help you get to sleep

How to sleep yourself sharp

Chris Flanagan FFT
Staff Writer

Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from 20 countries, in places as varied as Jerusalem and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering Euro 2020 and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.