How to Sleep in a Hotel Room When You Never Sleep Well Away (Sponsored)

To sleep in a hotel room, expect your first night to be lighter than usual, make the room as dark, quiet and cool as you can, and keep the same bedtime and wake time you use at home. Most bad hotel sleep comes from those three things: an unfamiliar room, a room that's too bright, loud or warm, and a schedule that drifts on the road.

Start with the timing. Put your usual alarm into the sleep calculator and it gives you bedtimes that end on a full 90-minute cycle, with 15 minutes to fall asleep built in.

Why can't I sleep in a hotel room?

Part of your brain stays on watch the first night in a new place, so you take longer to fall asleep and wake more easily.

Sleep researchers call this the first-night effect. A 2016 study in Current Biology found that on the first night in an unfamiliar setting, one brain hemisphere slept less deeply than the other and stayed more alert. That more vigilant side reacted more strongly to unusual sounds, and those sounds caused more wake-ups. The more uneven the two sides were, the longer people took to fall asleep. The difference was gone in later sessions.

So a rough first night in a hotel is normal, not a sign that something is wrong with you. It also means night two is usually easier. If you have something important the morning after you arrive, try to check in a night early.

How do you make a hotel room dark, quiet and cool?

Block every light, cover the noise with a steady sound, and turn the thermostat down before bed. This checklist takes about five minutes when you check in:

• Dark. Pull the blackout curtain fully closed and clip the gap with a hanger clip if it won't meet. Cover the TV standby light, the smoke detector glow and the alarm clock. Turn the clock to face the wall. An eye mask handles whatever is left.
• Quiet. Ask for a room away from the elevator, ice machine and street. A fan, a white noise app or the air unit's fan setting gives your brain a steady sound so hallway doors and voices stand out less. Earplugs help in thin-walled rooms.
• Cool. Turn the heat or air down before you go out to dinner so the room is cool when you get back. Research on the sleep environment shows heat exposure, with normal bedding, increases wakefulness and cuts deep and REM sleep.
• Familiar. Bring one thing from home, such as your own pillowcase. It won't cancel the first-night effect, but it makes the bed feel less strange.

How do you sleep in a hotel bed that feels wrong?

Adjust what you can: pillows, firmness and covers. Ask the front desk for a firmer or softer pillow, a spare blanket or a lighter duvet. Most hotels keep extras. If the bed is too soft, an extra folded blanket under your hips can help, and if the duvet is too hot, sleep under the sheet and a light blanket instead.

What time should I go to bed in a hotel?

Go to bed at the same time you would at home, timed to your wake-up, so your body clock doesn't drift.

The site's math: bedtime = wake time minus 15 minutes to fall asleep minus 5 or 6 sleep cycles of 90 minutes each. For a few common alarms:

Set the alarm for the same time every day of the trip, including the day you check out. If a conference dinner runs late, use the sleep calculator to pick the next cycle-friendly bedtime rather than lying awake waiting to feel tired.

How do you sleep in a hotel in a different time zone?

For a night or two, you can choose to keep close to home hours; for a longer stay, shift toward local time with a plan.

A short trip across one or two time zones often isn't worth adjusting to, especially if you fly home soon. For longer trips or bigger time differences, the jet lag calculator builds a day-by-day schedule for your route, including when to seek or avoid light. Use the hotel room's curtains to control light: open them wide when the plan says to get light, keep them shut when it says to avoid it.

When should I stop drinking hotel coffee?

Stop early enough that the caffeine falls below about 25 mg by bedtime, which for a regular cup is around 9 to 10 hours before bed.

Hotel coffee bars and lobby espresso machines make it easy to keep sipping. Caffeine has an average half-life of about 5 hours, so half of a cup is still in you 5 hours later. Here's the latest time to finish each drink for a 10:45 PM bedtime:

Those big lobby cups add up fast. Plug in your actual drinks and bedtime with the caffeine calculator.

Why do I wake up with a dry mouth in a hotel?

Usually because the room air was dry and you slept with your mouth open.

Dry indoor air during heating season has been linked to dryness and irritation of the nose and throat, and a hotel room running the heat or a strong air unit all night can feel parched by morning. If your nose feels stuffy, you're more likely to breathe through your mouth, and you wake with a sticky mouth and sore throat. A glass of water by the bed, a hot shower before sleep and turning the unit down a notch can help. Our guide to waking up with a dry mouth covers other causes.

Can mouth tape or nasal strips help you sleep in a hotel?

They may help if dry air and mouth breathing are what wake you, as long as you can breathe easily through your nose. This post is sponsored by Titan Recovery.

If a stuffy nose is the problem, TitanAir Nasal Strips are drug-free external nasal dilators: flexible spring-loaded bands that sit across the bridge of the nose and lift the nasal passages open, with a skin-safe adhesive that leaves no residue.

If your nose is clear but your mouth falls open, Titan Mouth Tape is a bamboo silk strip that holds the lips gently together so you breathe through your nose. It peels off with no residue and works with facial hair. Both start at $34.95 for 30 nights ($1.16 a night) with a 30-night Better Sleep Guarantee. The Titan Sleep System pairs the two, from $62.95.

Mouth tape is not a treatment for sleep apnea and doesn't replace CPAP. Only use it if you can breathe easily through your nose. Never use it with a blocked nose, after alcohol or sedatives, with nausea, or for children. Try it at home before a trip, not for the first time in a hotel. If you snore loudly with gasping or pauses in breathing, talk to a doctor.