Welcome to Sleep Better Week
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Sleep is something we all do — obviously, ideally every night. Itshouldbe as simple as lying down and closing your eyes. But lately it feels more complicated than ever to get a good night’s sleep. The National Sleep Foundationreportsthat six out of ten adults don’t get enough sleep, with many struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep. The internet is full of influencer “sleep hacks” and all sorts of brands selling gadgets and supplements that promise to improve and optimize our sleep. Exhausted, sleepless consumers are feeling increasingly overwhelmed by their search for which mattress or pillow or sleep mask might bethe one, and they’re throwing a lot of money at the problem: The American “sleep market” was valued at $27.3 million last year, and it’s expected to keep growing.
The point is, there’s a lot of noise in the world of sleep, and a lot of people who are looking for ways to sleep better … or to sleep at all, period. That’s why we’re dedicating a whole week here at the Strategist to helping with that. As the Strategist’s sleep writer, I spend my days (and nights) looking for the bestmattresses,pillows,sound machines,earplugs, and everything else you need to sleep your best. But for Sleep Better Week, I also investigated whether you need a “nontoxic” mattress and what couples with different habits and preferences can do to more peacefully share the bed. I asked people lots of nosy questions to learn the tips and tricks that CPAP users swear by, what it’s like to sleep on a bed the size of some studio apartments, and what a sleep psychologist’s bedtime routine looks like. And I invited many of my Strategist colleagues to share the products and strategiestheyrely on to get their best night’s rest.
Our goal for this week isn’t to tell you that you need 25 different doodads to get a full eight hours, but to help you find whatyouneed to sleep better. So brew a cuppa sleepy-time tea and start counting sheep: Welcome to Sleep Better Week.
People in my life constantly ask me for advice on buying mattresses. If they aren’t especially picky, I always tell them the same thing: Get a medium-firm hybrid. Read the rest of my tips on how to shop for a mattress without stressinghere.
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Leesa Original Hybrid Mattress - Queen
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WinkBeds The WinkBed - Queen
If you’reoutfitting an entire sleep setupfrom scratch, just buying the best of everything gets very expensive, very quickly. Which got me thinking: What’s the minimum someone has to spend to get the highest-quality bed for the least amount of money? I’ve rounded up a bunch of very good essentials — mattress, duvet, pillows, and so on — that will run you about $1,500 total. Read myfull shopping list here.
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Strategist contributor Mackenzie Wagoner struggled with insomnia even before getting pregnant, and her sleep only got worse as “the nightly hormonal roofie-ing of building a placenta stretched the insomniac behavior into a nightly habit.” After speaking with her doctor, she turned to Unisom, the only sleep aid tested and approved for pregnant women. Read her full reviewhere.
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Strategist contributor Katie Stone has a compelling write-up of the high-tech eye massager that helps her wind down for bed or get back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Read her full reviewhere.
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Writing about sleep often involves nagging people to walk us through their nightly habits and routines. In honor of Sleep Better Week, Strategist writer Kitty Guo turned the questions back on the Strategist staff — a famously discerning bunch — to get the details on the eye masks, sheets, duvets, alarm clocks, bed frames, and other sleep gear we all use IRL. Snoop our full bedscapeshere.
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We’re always working hard to ensure our mattress recommendations are up to date, so I recently tasked senior writer Michael Zhao with retesting our favorite all-foam mattress, the Leesa Original. I’m pleased to report that the Leesa held onto its title, and you can read Zhao’s updated testing notes — as well as reviews of our other favorite mattresses —here.
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I updated our guide to the best firm mattresses with a brand-new recommendation from deputy editor Simone Kitchens, our resident firm-mattress connoisseur who just declared the Avocado Green Extra Firm mattress the firmest of them all. Read her full reviewhere.
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Kitchens also wrote about her handsome bedside lamp, the Tala Wake Sleep Light, which is remarkably nice-looking for also being a sunrise alarm clock and a sound machine. Read her full reviewhere.
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Sleeping on planes is awful; bringing the right gear helps. So Strategist writer Erin Schwartz rallied a few colleagues to chat about our tried-and-true products and techniques for napping at 30,000 feet — including an ugly yet reliable blackout mask and the neurotic yet essential nighttime kit one Strategist writer brings on every flight. Read our recommendationshere.
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J.Crew Oversize Cashmere Wrap
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We’ve asked hundreds of celebrities about their favorite stuff for our “What I Can’t Live Without” column — and as it turns out, a good chunk of the products they’ve recommended over the years is sleep-related. Writer Bella Druckman rounded up all the eye masks, bedding, and other sleep stuff they’ve told us about, includingJean Smart’s sheets,Courteney Cox’s travel pillow,Margaret Cho’s earplugs, and more. Read the full listhere.
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The Strategist has reviewed thousands of products to help you sleep better. For the Sleep Hall of Fame, I curated my top 100 picks, including fan-favorite pillows, a sleep-inducing foot spray, and really nice pajamas. See the full listhere.
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Social-media chatter about mattresses full of off-gassing polyurethane foam, hormone-disrupting chemicals, and fire retardants has made buying a bed confusing at best and anxiety producing at worst. Many mattress brands have jumped at the chance to capitalize on consumer fears, touting their use of “nontoxic” and organic materials at every opportunity. So I called up experts in toxicology, environmental science, and public health to ask whether the most commonly cited fears about mattresses are founded — the answer, as you may expect, is not a simple “yes” or “no.” Read what I learnedhere.
Tech writer Jordan McMahon has tested dozens ofalarm clocksfor the Strategist, and the Hatch stands apart from the rest. He says the latest model, the Restore 3, is the best iteration yet; read his full reviewhere.
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Bigger than a California king (six by seven feet), a Wyoming king (seven by seven), and even a Vermont king (eight by eight), the gigantic Alaskan-king mattress has an almost mythical quality to it. But it is real, and I talked to three people who have actually purchased one, plus a couple of execs who sell them, to find out what it’s really like to sleep in (and make) a meg abed. Read the full storyhere.
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Wagoner also found a simple, inexpensive way to eliminate annoying — and sleep-disrupting — lights on electronics in her bedroom: by covering them with small light-blocking stickers. Now the space is “unquestionably darker and more peaceful.” Read her full reviewhere.
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A diagnosis for sleep apnea generally means getting a prescription for a CPAP machine. Using one can be crucial for people with the condition, but it’s a pretty common response to shudder and think,No way. After speaking to five CPAP users, I learned so many tips and tricks to ease the adjustment to life with a CPAP. For all their advice on how to get used to sleeping with one, how to prevent mask acne, and how to travel with the device, headhere.
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Author and podcaster Kate Spencer has dealt with a spate of sleep issues, from anxiety to a recent diagnosis of sleep apnea. I asked her to walk me through every single habit and product that’s helped her get through it all — including sleep headphones for listening to meditations, a chin strap that prevents mouth breathing, and a heatable stuffed animal. See her full listhere.
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Board-certified behavioral sleep-medicine psychologist Dr. Jade Wu mostly keeps her sleep setup simple — but she has a few tricks up her sleeve, like using a light box to help her “fake” being a morning person. See her full routinehere.
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Last year, Strategist contributor Diksha Basu told us all about themagnesium oilshe sprays on her feet to help her sleep. She’s back this week with another banger of a recommendation: self-warming eye masks. After trying them on a whim to soothe COVID-related eye pain, she now loves them so much that she’s keeping them in her purse to “pull out like a loving sleep fairy when anyone complains that they don’t sleep well.” Read her full reviewhere.
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If you prefer to listen to audio to block noise at night, sleep earbuds are a great variation on the classic earplug. I’ve been testing the Soundcore A30 earbuds for several months and just named them the Best Sleep Earbuds. Compared to the brand’s older A20 earbuds, the A30s are more comfortable and offer better sound quality, plus they come with all sorts of in-app customization options. Read my full reviewhere.
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When I first started writing our guide to the best mattress toppers, I namedTempur-Pedic’s Tempur-Adapt topperthe best overall. I recently retested it to be sure it still deserves the honor, and it was just the thing to help soften a too-firm mattress and relieve my achy shoulders. Read my full reviewhere.
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Sleeping next to someone can be delightful, unless that someone runs hotter than you, snores like a farm animal, or wakes up several times in the night. I rounded up all the splitmattresses,adjustable bed frames,mattress toppers, dual-temperatureduvets,anti-snoring pillows,sound machines, and more to make sleeping better for both people in the bed. See my full listhere.
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Not overheating at night is key to getting good sleep, but if you’re a hot sleeper, that’s easier said than done. Junior writer Bella Druckman rounded up all of thesheets,pillows,mattresses, PJs, gadgets, and more that experts and hot sleepers themselves have recommendeed to us over the years. See her full listhere.
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- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
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- The Strategist Summer 100
The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
