For years, we’ve been obsessed with maximising productivity in the home; between home offices, home wellness rooms, home gyms, and more, our spaces have never had to work as hard as they do now. But amidst all this productivity-maxxing and overextending of our home’s capabilities, the one thing we all forgot was that homes are meant to be a sanctuary, a place where we can unwind, relax and reset away from the world. But in an age when homes, and their residents, are trying to do it all, designers warn us we need to take it back to basics and focus on sleep-friendly home design and architecture that better supports sleep, rest, and recovery.
The experts have noticed a growing desire among Australians for home sanctuaries. Interior designer Louise Walsh tells us many of her clients are requesting dedicated calm spaces that “focus on health and wellbeing, peace and quiet, [that are] away from daily noise.” Kim Williams, founder of Frequency Lab in Sydney’s Newtown, agrees: “People are realising that wellness isn’t a luxury, it’s essential. We’re learning that our homes, profoundly influence our mood, sleep and wellbeing.”
So, how can you design your home for better sleep? We asked award-winning architect, Sharlene Browning, known for creating homes that are closely tied to their natural surroundings, for her take on sleep-friendly home design.
How to design a home for better sleep:
- Prioritise circadian-friendly lighting with ambient and soft lighting
- Bring in fresh air through windows and operable skylights
- Connect with the night sky for mindful sleep and wake cycles
- Create wind-down spaces free from work laptops and other screens
What is sleep-friendly home design?
A concept we’re calling ‘rest-first design’, it is a sleep-friendly home design approach that focuses on shaping the whole home, not just the bedroom, around features that actually help you sleep better. “Homes should support the transition from energising mornings through to restful evenings,” Sharlene tells us, encouraging us to consider designing homes around rest.
“Good design should support how you live across the whole day,” she says, referring to the full cycle from waking in the morning to falling asleep at night.
Designing a home for better sleep is possible. (Photography: Renee Odgers | Architect: Sharlene Browning)
How to design a home for better sleep
There are four main ways Sharlene employs rest-first design in spaces designed for recovery and improved sleep quality.
1. Prioritise circadian-friendly lighting
The way you light your home can directly impact your circadian rhythm – your body’s natural 24-hour internal clock, which is heavily influenced by light. Morning light tells your brain to suppress melatonin and increase alertness, while dim, warm light in the evening helps your body wind down and prepare for sleep. Blue light – the kind emitted by phones, laptops, and TV screens – is especially disruptive at night, since it can delay your body’s natural sleep signals. And even bright, cool-toned ceiling lights can delay sleep, since they confuse your body’s receptors.
“I like to explore beyond and to avoid downlights, where possible,” Sharlene says. “Glare is offensive to the naked eye, and homes are littered with it in the form of terribly positioned and over supplied downlights.”
“In my own home I have selected fittings to facilitate a soft winter’s morning rise and a year-round soft evening’s retreat. This is in the form of uplighting, the use of dimmers, Bluetooth timers, sensors, and low-level tread lights along the hallway for the kids still journeying to our bedroom or the bathroom in the night.”
2. Bring in fresh air
A home filled with stagnant, stale air works against you, as a build-up of CO2 and heat has been shown to prevent deep, uninterrupted sleep. The best way to solve this is by bringing in fresh outdoor air every day – which can be done by burping your home, or through architectural features like ventilating skylights. Some skylights – like the VELUX range – even offer a built-in ventilation setting, opening to fill the room with a quick flush of fresh air and, after a set time, closing automatically.
“When you bring in fresh air…you create a healthier home that will support how you live through the day and rest at night,” says Sharlene.
Skylight at night. (Kleen Cut Paining | Image: VELUX Australia)
3. Connect with the night sky
Exposure to darkness promotes sleepiness, and ambient light, even a subtle glow from outside, can disrupt your rest. To solve this, Sharlene recommends designing your sleep space around achieving true darkness, positioning windows and skylights away from potential light pollution, including streetlights, neighbouring security lights, and car headlights. In addition, automated motorised blinds can be added to allow you to wake with the morning sun.
In Sharlene’s own home, she designed window size and placement to capitalise on the local diurnal cycle, mapping the summer and winter sun paths with a mix of skylights and high-level windows. “I wanted to wake up with the sun, and for a decent part of the year I do, but I also get to go to sleep watching the stars, the moonlight, and occasionally Aurora Australis,” says Sharlene. “That is a real treat if I’ve been up late working.”
4. Create wind-down spaces
While designers would prefer we avoid bringing work into our homes, as blurring the divide between productivity and relaxation is a recipe for disaster, they’re well aware home offices are here to stay. By way of compromise, they suggest planning your spatial flow to create a divide between work and rest, physically separating offices from other areas of the house, and at the very least removing all screens in bedrooms.
“Working from dining tables and lounge rooms might feel comfortable in the moment…but it completely removes any boundary between rest and work, which people really start to feel over time,” say Elle and Alanah, co-founders and creative directors of interior design studio, Twostyle. “Visually, being able to “close away” work (with cabinetry or styling) makes a huge difference to how a space feels at the end of the day.”
Sleep-friendly home design, according to interior designers. (Photography: Rhiannon Taylor | Styling: Sophie McCabe)
Writer
Danielle Grover
Senior Content Producer