Have you ever seen the ‘how I sleep knowing’ meme? The meme features a picture of someone either sleeping well or not being able to sleep. Then, there’s a humorous phrase over it. For example, there could be a photo of a baby sleeping soundly along with the phrase, ‘How I sleep at night knowing I cleaned my makeup brushes.’
However, if someone is living in a cluttered and unorganized house, their version of the meme would most likely include someone who can’t sleep. Many people don’t realize that having a cluttered home, especially in the bedroom, causes stress that interrupts sleep.
It’s easy to clean up your home just to get it back in disarray a day or two later. You can come home from work, school, a friend’s house, a party, or wherever, just to slam your purse, bag, or other items down. You think nothing about it because it is just one or a few items at the most. However, the accumulation can quickly rise before you know it.
Worse, it’s already impacting your sleep management without you even realizing it.
How I Sleep At Night Knowing My House is Cluttered
Clutter happens very easily and very quickly, even if you are someone who keeps a tidy home. A purse on the counter here, and a stack of mail on a table there, and suddenly it can feel a little out of control.
You have a busy life, and the last thing you want to do every night when you get home from work or dinner is to clean your house. This is often how it happens, but what you might not realize is how it is affecting your health and your sleep management.
How Clutter Affects Your Sleep
The big question is how exactly does having a cluttered home actually affect your sleep. This can happen for a few different reasons.
Clutter Increases Anxiety
People with anxiety know how easy it is for their anxiety levels to increase. This can happen a lot when you have disorganization in your home. It makes you anxious seeing messes and just clutter everywhere you look, especially in your bedroom when you are meant to relax before you go to sleep.
In terms of what cleanliness has to do with sleep, it is possible that strain caused by a cluttered environment is to blame for certain insomniacs’ problems falling asleep. According to a survey conducted by CPAP, many of the respondents stated that they feel uncomfortable when their houses are not clean.
Clutter Draws Your Eye and Makes It Hard to Turn Your Mind Off
If you are tossing and turning at night, decluttering your bedroom should be the first thing you do. Otherwise, when you are relaxing at night, you will be focused on the piles of laundry on the floor, the empty water bottles on your desk, and all the clutter on your dresser or nightstand. And you’ll end up asking yourself: “How do I sleep at night knowing that I have so much to clean up?”
Clutter Leads to More Stress and Tossing and Turning at Night
Similar to anxiety, having a cluttered home when you are trying to sleep is something that you can’t help but think about. It can make you feel bothered and demotivated.
In many cases, this can cause stress shortly before you go to sleep in your bed, where you lie down and just think about how you are going to fit in cleaning and organizing with everything else you need to do.
Takeaway
Organizing your home can help reduce stress and make it easier for you to sleep. Once your home is decluttered, you’ll be like the baby in the ‘how I sleep knowing’ meme, happily snoozing away without a care in the world.