Featured Image: These tips will help women get a good sleep in any situation | Photo by svitlanah via Envato

How to prepare for sleeping in a strange bed

by Amanda Burgess 

You know how one of the things you look forward to most upon returning from travel is the bliss of sleeping in your own bed? Well, it’s also one of the first things you miss when you land in a strange bed. We sat down with sleep expert Shawna Robins, author of Powerful Sleep: Rest Deeply, Repair Your Brain and Restore Your Life, to talk through her top tips for mitigating sleep disruptions and creating good sleep while travelling.

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Expert tips on how to get a good sleep while travelling

1. Check the temperature

“Temperature is really important,” Robins says. “Too warm? You’re not going to sleep very well. Too cold? Again, you’re not going to sleep very well. Everyone has a different temperature that works for their body. I highly recommend that you try to identify what your ideal temperature is before you travel, so you know exactly what to turn the thermostat to,” she says.

And what if you’re travelling with a partner who has a much different ideal temperature than you do? Don’t suffer in silence and lose sleep over it. Get creative.

“That is completely common. Sometimes, I will have extra blankets on my side of the bed because my husband likes it cold. I’ve come to embrace the colder rooms because I can get all snuggled like the Princess and the Pea underneath my layers of blankets, and I always call down for an extra blanket and comforter. Embrace the differences and find the positive in them,” she says.

2. Block out noise (or create noise in the absence of it)

Use earplugs to block out offending city sounds. If you need background noise, as Robins does, use a white noise app.

3. Make good daytime decisions: eat well, exercise, and lower stress levels

“The daytime decisions you make are what set you up for healthy sleep or disrupted sleep. So you really need to look at the daytime decisions you’re making. What does your diet look like? Are you eating a diet of processed foods and sugar because you’re exhausted and craving sweets that give you quick energy? Well, that’s going to take your blood sugar and pop it up and down, which will disrupt your REM cycles at night,” Robins says.

“It’s all about eating whole, nutritious foods and limiting sugar. Eat the rainbow – fresh fruits, vegetables and lean protein. If you’re interested in going plant-based, your 40s are a good time to consider it or try it. The more plants you can get in your body every day, the better off your hormones are going to be. Daily exercise is also key, especially getting outside for fresh oxygen and Vitamin D to boost your sleep cycles.”

4. Limit alcohol intake

“It’s a stressful time when you are in perimenopause, menopause or post-menopause, and we tend to lean on alcohol to calm us down. Try limiting the alcohol to two glasses a week. That sounds ridiculous, but it does amazing things for your body – lowering inflammation levels lowers breast cancer risk. For every drink you have over three drinks a week, your breast cancer risk goes up by 15% and then an additional 15% with each additional drink,” she says.

5. Turn off all blue light one hour before bed

“There’s a setting you can use on your device to turn off blue light, or simply unplug one hour before bed. It makes a big difference,” says Robins.

6. Don’t eat or drink anything three hours before bed

“I always say the brain is like a self-cleaning oven. You go to sleep, it clicks on, and it’s very active. It’s regenerating, it’s rebuilding, it’s cleaning, it’s storing your memories. So it’s about investing in your brain health and making sure you get seven to nine uninterrupted hours of sleep,” says Robins. “And typically, that means not eating or drinking anything three hours before bedtime. Because you don’t want to wake up and have to use the bathroom. You don’t want to wake up and your blood sugar drops because you had ice cream, a piece of toast or a banana.”

7. Take a warm bath or shower one hour before bed

“Really create a wind-down situation for yourself. Do what makes you feel calm and restful,” she says. “I love doing gratitude journals, or happygrams as my business coach calls them, where you make a list of everything that happened that day that made you feel happy. It’s so great because I sometimes look at that and go, oh wow, I had a better day than I thought I had,” says Robins. “I think of all these things that went wrong in my day, but when I gratitude journal or do happygrams, I actually realize all the terrific things that happened. That’s very calming and soothing. It helps lessen the anxiety that we sometimes get when we’re trying to fall asleep.”

8. Replace melatonin or prescription sleep aids with magnesium, tulsi (holy basil) tea, lavender, or CBD

“I recommend supplements like magnesium before you go to sleep. You can either put it in your bath in the form of Epsom salts, or you can drink it or take magnesium pills. Around 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium and every single cell in your body can use it. It relaxes and soothes muscles – it’s a powerful hack that I use, and sometimes that’s it.” says Robins. “It’s not about making this overall lifestyle shift. It’s about making small changes that over time have a big impact on your health and well-being.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally written in 2020 and updated in 2025. 

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