For a lot of people, really good sleep can't happen until every possible distraction has been removed from the room. You need a pitch-black sleep chamber dedicated to your deep slumber to get the kind of deep sleep you need. In a house you owned, you could rebuild the whole bedroom to suit your needs. But in a rental house or apartment, it's necessary to get creative.

Fortunately, the Sleep Doctor blog is here to offer some clever sleep quality advice. You don't have to drive a single nail to get your room quiet, dark, and blissfully cool for your slumbering needs. Here's how to do it:

Light Proof Curtains = No Nail Holes

The first challenge is achieving a pitch-black bedroom without using nails. Normal curtains or blinds can't achieve it because of the gap between the wall and the fabric. So you'll need to attach thick curtains or blankets around the window. Normally, you could do this with a hammer and nails. But in a rental house, you want to impact the walls as little as possible.

Command strips are your answer here. They are a special kind of mounting tape strips that can hang heavy objects and can come down without damaging the paint. Command clips can not only hold up the blackout curtains, but they can also hold the curtains to the wall all the way around. They are finally blocking out all the sunlight when it's time to sleep.

White Noise on Every Wall 

The next step is blocking sounds that come from outside your room. The best way to do that is with white noise. Having a loud box fan in the room is a great make-shift way to create some white noise and airflow at the same time. But the best white noise comes from a little speaker setup. Fortunately, you don't need your landlord's permission to set up speakers.

The key to making a sleep chamber is to place a speaker on every wall, blocking outside sound from all directions. Bass also helps a lot, so a subwoofer turned way down is a great addition to your sleep chamber. Place speakers on tables or, if you need to hang them, use command strips to avoid drilling mounting screws.

Extra Cold AC Power

Sleep is also best done in a room that is just a little too cold for comfort when awake. The best way to do this is to turn down your thermostat at night and make sure your bedroom AC vent is open. However, if your room just doesn't get cold enough for comfortable sleep, there are other alternatives. A fast-blowing fan is one option, which may or may not be enough for you.

The ultimate answer to cooling is a window-unit AC. This is something you'll want to run by your landlord first, but window units don't damage the home if installed correctly, so approval is usually easy to get. Once you have a window AC pointing directly into your bedroom, you can use that to super-chill your sleep chamber and create some white noise on the outside wall.

Perfectly Comfortable Bedding

And, of course, nothing helps you get to sleep like falling into a pile of heavenly bedding at the end of each day. The right mattress for your back, the right pillows for your neck and sleep style, and of course, the right bedding to make you feel ultimately warm and cozy. The perfect bedding will send you into happy slumber as you slide between the sheets while poor bedding may keep you tossing and turning all night on a lumpy mattress or scratchy sheets.

Not only do you need to start with the right mattress and pillow type, but your choice of sheets also matters a great deal. Scratchy sheets, old, stretched out sheets, and sheets that are pilling or dirty will keep you up because your skin will be unhappy. After all, why do we all love sleeping in hotel beds? They always offer incredibly high-quality sheets that are always pristinely clean.

Your choice of blankets is equally important. You need a warm blanket in the winter and a cool blanket in the summer. But no matter the time of year, a weighted blanket will feel more comforting overall. This is interesting and is one of the reasons many people prefer year-round breathable duvets with exchangeable covers.

Voice-Command Smart Lights

The next coolest thing about building yourself a rental-friendly sleep chamber is smart lights. Smart lights are the single universal feature that everyone playing with smart homes can (and should) try. And they'll make one awesome addition to your sleep chamber.

Smart lights are installed just like normal lights; they screw into the socket. The only difference is you take them with you when you go. Oh, and the smart light can turn on, off, dim bright or dark, and possibly even change color based on a voice command from you. When it comes to turning the lights off after crawling into bed or mumbling the lights on in the morning, it's a lifesaver. Or, at the very least, a stubbed-toe saver.

Zombie-Level Bathroom Access

Finally, take a minute to consider your path to the bathroom. Once you've got a true sleep chamber, you won't want (or need) to wake up fully for those midnight 'gotta pee' experiences. When the depth of your sleep chamber has you shuffling half-awake for bathroom trips, you want the coast to be clear.

For master bed-bath suites, this is easiest. Just makes sure there's nothing on the floor between you and the bathroom. If you don't have an en-suite bathroom, then path your route from your room to the shared bathroom nearby. With planning, you won't ever rise into full consciousness until you're back in the pitch-black chamber snuggling into the covers.

Building yourself a sleep chamber is sometimes necessary to get the deep, high-quality sleep you need. And when you live in an apartment, the only real trick you need is no-residue mounting tape strips to secure your curtain and hang anything you need from the wall. With these tips and techniques, you will soon be snoring blissfully unaware of what happens outside your sleep chamber bedroom. For more insights into how to get the best possible sleep, contact us today!