Your bedroom is your sanctuary. It’s where you wind down, recharge, and find peace after a long day. But have you considered how the colours you choose for your bed and bedroom influence that experience? Colours can affect your mood, energy levels, and sleep quality. Whether you’re a homeowner refreshing your bedroom or an interior designer seeking inspiration, understanding the psychology of colour and how to use it in your bedroom design is key to creating a restful, stylish space.
This blog will explore the key factors to picking the best bed and bedroom colours, how they affect your space and tips for using colour combinations that balance function and aesthetics.
Key Takeaways
Good Colors for Sleep: The colours in your bedroom can significantly impact your ability to sleep well. Choosing calming and sleep-inducing colours, such as blue, yellow, green, silver, orange, pink, and white, can reduce stress and help soothe the nervous system, contributing to a better night’s sleep.
Choose Relaxing Colors: Blue and green are associated with calmness and relaxation. In contrast, bright and stimulating colours like red or dark shades like black and brown can hinder relaxation and sleep quality. Flat paint with a matte finish can also create a cosy room by reducing light reflection.
Factors that Impact Color Effects: When selecting bedroom colours, consider cultural influences, gender, age, and personal preferences, as these variables can impact how individuals perceive and respond to different colours.
The bedroom affects your ability to sleep well. Feeling calm and content makes you more likely to fall asleep quickly. The colours in your bedroom, in particular, distinguish between a good night’s sleep and a night spent tossing and turning.
While little research directly explores the impact of colour on sleep, the effects of colour on mood and emotional state have been studied. Some colours calm or even make us happy, while others can increase excitement or sadness. Colour psychology experts found that some colours put us at ease while others cause us to feel alert.
In our article, we share the best and worst colours for sleep so you can better understand how colour may indirectly affect the circadian rhythm through its mood-enhancing or dampening properties.
Best Bedroom Colors for Sleep
Good colour design can contribute to a more positive mood in and out of the home, and what works for one area of the home may not work for your bedroom.
In our experience, the best colours for sleep are blue, yellow, green, silver, orange, pink, and white. These colours can reduce stress and soothe the nervous system. Stick with neutral or pastel shades for a soft, welcoming atmosphere.
Blue
Blue is one of the best bedroom colours because it combines calm and relaxation. Blue is often considered a non-stimulating colour, which can help with sleep quality. And despite the association of blue with sorrow, down to phrases like “feeling blue,” a bedroom with a blue colour scheme can make you feel calm, content, and even happy.
Researchers explored why specific colours are associated with emotions like happiness and sadness. They discovered that it’s not just about the brightness or intensity of the colour but also the particular shade. After considering brightness and intensity, colours with a blue hue were just as happy as those with a yellow hue and sometimes even happier.
Worth noting is that blue space
refers to aquatic areas in urban spaces, such as lakes, rivers, and ponds. The presence of these areas can impact mental health significantly, but not everyone will have easy access. Using blue colours to give your bedroom a pleasant, watery cast, and pictures of therapeutic waterscapes may help you relax at night.
Yellow
Softer shades of yellow create a tranquil environment because the muted tone imitates sunshine. Soft yellows alleviate stress and promote tranquillity so you can sleep peacefully.
Yellow is associated with happiness, so happy or sad faces were paired with yellow backgrounds and blue or grey. Participants were then asked to quickly judge whether the face represented happiness or sadness. The analysis of response time showed that the colour yellow facilitated judgments of joy, while neither blue nor grey facilitated judgments of sadness.
Yellow may also be associated with safety, so it can be a good way to make your sleeping space feel more secure.
Brighter hues can boost energy and should be avoided. Choose light and gently creamy pastels, like an ivory colour that’s faded to yellow with time. This is especially true if you are designing a bedroom for a child with autism, as their heightened sense can make them more sensitive to bright yellows.
Green
Green is another excellent colour choice for relaxation. It is also easy for the eyes to see because, like blue, they are sensitive to green light.
Like a blue room, a green room helps us feel calm and peaceful because green is a non-stimulating colour. One example is a 2025 study that examined colour preference in subjects with and without schizophrenia found that the participants who did not have schizophrenia preferred green overall, while schizophrenia patients were drawn more to colours associated with depression or anxiety.
The best green colours for sleep should have blue tones—warm tones like yellow may cause you to feel energetic instead of helping you unwind. Remember, pastels are your friend when promoting sleep, so choose a shade like a pastel green. Like blue space, green space
or greenery in urban areas also impacts mental health. Indoor greenery can also positively impact health, specifically when feeling more at ease and thinking better.
Consider bringing a little bit of green space into your home by adding some green plants for the bedroom.
Orange / Light Brown
Light orange colours, including tan and beige, have a warm tone reminiscent of a sandy beach, creating a welcoming space in your bedroom. Choose orange colours with brown undertones, like terracotta, and avoid bright orange because they invigorate the brain, much like a warm and deep red would be. Remember, softness is key when picking new hues for your bedroom walls.
Lighter browns with warm yet subdued tones may be perfect for a child with autism.
Boys with ASD preferred green and brown, while typically developing boys had brown as their least preferred colour.
Pink
Pink may not seem like a good colour for the bedroom because of its red tones. But a soft, natural pink gives off a tranquil feeling that can help you fall asleep quickly.
Avoid bright red tones that can bring the wall forward and make it pop. Pink can be pretty eye-catching
examining people’s reactions to different colours of dental hospital chairs.
Think instead of cool pinks that help the wall fade into the background of your bedroom. These can still span a wide range, from gentle, rosy colours to pale pinks that are almost white.
Pink is also linked to optimistic feelings, at least among women studied in 2016. First, female participants classified words as optimistic or pessimistic, while some words were presented in pink and others in black. A control test was also run with black and light blue colours for the exact words to rule out the possible influence of brightness.
The results indicated a consistent association between pink and optimism, independent of brightness. In another part of the study, female participants exposed to pink showed increased levels of optimism, as opposed to those exposed to yellow instead.
White
If you already have white bedroom walls, you may not have much reason to change them. White is a simple, neutral colour that is unlikely to create distracting feelings or sensations, though some find it cold and sterile.
White is often considered timeless and classic, so it’s difficult to go wrong with it.
Asked 80 participants to choose their preferred colour for a living room and clothing colour. White was the clear favourite for living spaces, at 33 per cent.
If you find white walls boring, you might want to try an accent wall with one of our other color recommendations. After all, white goes well with everything.
Bedding with muted pastels, neutral tones, and other relaxing colours can keep a white bedroom from feeling uninviting. The drawback is that these sheets will eventually lose their lustre, and you will need to take steps to whiten them.
You can also make the room feel warmer by choosing a slightly off-white color, such as ivory or cream tones, which can look like very pale yellows.
Silver
Silver is an excellent choice if you prefer neutral colours. Unlike dark grey tones, silver induces calm feelings instead of depressive ones. Be sure to choose a matte silver colour and not a shiny paint—the shine reflects any bright light, keeping you awake.
It should be a soothing shade of light grey. If light grey or silver is bland, pair it with a gentle blue accent wall.
Worst Bedroom Colors for Sleep
In our experience, bright purple, grey, brown, black, and red are the worst colours for sleep. Individuals often associate grey, brown, and black with negative emotions, while purple and red can feel too active for a restful space.
While you can repaint your bedroom walls if you choose a colour that doesn’t work, it’s best to save yourself the hassle of extra work by understanding what hues are linked to stimulating or uncertain feelings.
Bright Purple
Bright purple is not a good choice for the bedroom. Bright purple hues have reddish undertones, increasing energy levels and keeping you alert, but softer purple shades may boost sleepiness, as some find the colour soothing.
If you’re set on painting your bedroom purple, try to choose a more muted tone, like lavender, because of its cool undertones. Remember, the goal is to have your bedroom walls almost fade into the background of your mind, not immediately jump out at you every time you look at your wall.
Dark Gray
Dark grey is linked to depression in colour theory because it gives a similar feel to a rainy or overcast day. Dark grey is a good accent colour, like a trim along the floor moulding and door frame to offset a lighter neutral colour. However, painting the entire walls this dark shade and adding grey bedding creates a sombre atmosphere, which some may find hampers their relaxation.
Silver or grey with blue undertones are better choices if you want a neutral colour. As mentioned above, a hint of dark grey is delicate for floor trim and such to offset lighter grey shades.
Now, while conventional thought is that seeing grey can boost depression, it may be the other way around–in other words, you’re more likely to see grey if you’re depressed.
Looked at how depression might affect our vision. They measured the pattern electroretinogram (PERG) in people with depression and in healthy individuals to see if there were any differences. They found that depressed patients, whether they were taking medication or not, had lower retinal contrast gain compared to healthy subjects. This difference in contrast gain was strongly linked to the severity of depression.
Explored the connection between mood disorders and colour sensitivity by surveying 120 participants. They found that those who reported feeling depressed also mentioned a change in colour perception, with things appearing grey or lacking colour. These findings suggest that colour sensitivity may be impaired during the depression, though the study also concluded further research was needed.
Brown
The shade can increase subconscious feelings of sadness and cause restlessness instead of sleep—not exactly a cosy feel for the bedroom atmosphere.
Warmer browns with orangish tones can feel calming and soothing, but darker, more fabulous browns may make it hard to relax.
Red
Red is an invigorating colour, increasing heart rate. One study found that red increases brain activity
and boosts alertness, something you don’t want when trying to relax and fall asleep. For many, red is a colour linked to a perceived threat.
Aside from their stimulating effects, red sheets and blankets can also make your bed more appealing to certain pests.
Found that red, along with dark colours, draws in bed bugs.
If you love the colour, we recommend pastels closer to pink in hue. You can also have an accent wall with soothing white walls to minimize distraction and stimulation. For romantic bedroom colours to appeal to your partner, consider gentle creams, light lavenders, and pastel pink instead of bright, throbbing red shades. While red is associated with romance
Black
Black bedroom walls may sound soothing to improve sleep, promoting a dark sleeping space. In practice, however, black bedroom walls can feel depressive and create feelings of gloom and sadness. Like dark brown shades are linked to negative emotions, black is often linked to sorrow, fear, and anger.
If you enjoy the colour, black curtains can add a touch of pop against a lighter neutral colour and promote darkness for better sleep. You may also want to consider a half-wall design with black and another colour.
As with red, black sheets and such can attract bed bugs.
Painting Tips
Before painting the bedroom walls, we recommend establishing a sleep-promoting colour scheme and using flat paint to create a cosy environment conducive to sleep.
Color Scheme
Decide a colour scheme for your bedroom makeover before painting to avoid colour clashing. Choose colours parallel to each other on the colour wheel—contrasting colours are stimulating because they clash with each other, so instead of a sleep-inducing environment, you may feel anxious and restless. This is especially true if you have three walls that are one colour, usually white, and an accent wall.
While we discussed accent walls with a primarily white bedroom, it’s important to remember these should be essentially soothing, light colours such as pastels. An accent wall that makes a statement and provides a bright flash of colour should be saved for other rooms in the home, like the kitchen or living room.
Before you start painting, you should know what colour your bedding will be in your room. While sheets, blankets, duvet covers, pillowcases, and pillow shams are all easy to switch out, it’s still helpful to have the right bedding at the start instead of replacing it with more neutral-coloured bedding.
Flat Paint
Stick with flat paint instead of one with a high-shine or glossy finish. The shine reflects light, disrupting sleep. Flatter paints with a matte finish absorb light and are less invigorating, promoting relaxation.
Hue, Saturation, & Brightness
When it comes to how your bedroom colours will look, hue, saturation, and brightness are essential colour characteristics that play a significant role in determining a space’s overall aesthetic and atmosphere. These three characteristics are key to establishing how your chosen colors will affect you and your emotions.
Hue
Hue refers to the attribute of a colour that distinguishes it from others on the colour wheel. It represents the fundamental colour category or the dominant wavelength of light that gives the colour its name, such as red, blue, green, etc. In other words, hue allows us to differentiate between various rainbow colours.
Saturation
Saturation, also known as chroma or intensity, refers to the purity or vividness of a colour. A colour with high saturation appears vibrant and intense, while a colour with low saturation appears more muted and pastel-like.
Manipulating saturation allows designers to create different levels of visual impact and mood within a room. Highly saturated colours can add energy and boldness to a space, while desaturated or less intense colours can create a more subdued and relaxed atmosphere.
Brightness
Brightness, also known as value or lightness, relates to the amount of light reflected by a colour. It determines how light or dark a colour appears. Colours with high brightness are lighter and closer to white, while colours with low brightness are darker and closer to black.
Colour brightness affects how we perceive depth, so brightness can make a small bedroom feel more significant. For example, a bright ceiling colour made it appear taller.
Culture and Color Associations
Much of the research done on colour psychology involves Western researchers and participants. However, we must note that colour associations can vary by culture, which means how a person reacts to colour depends on the culture in which they were raised.
Looked at how people from different cultures associate meanings with colours. They tested various colours and found that some associations seemed universal across cultures, like white symbolizing purity and blue representing water and the sky. However, there were also some differences between cultures.
For example, the study observed that red is associated with enthusiasm in Chinese culture but with attraction in English-speaking culture.
Similarly, it found that color-odor associations are influenced by cultural experiences, with some cultural groups having more similar patterns of associations than others.
Investigated whether colour-emotion associations are universal or influenced by culture and language. They tested emotional associations of colours in over 4,500 participants from 30 countries who spoke 22 native languages. The results showed universal color-emotion associations across all participants but also some local differences. A nation’s culture and language influenced these associations, and similarity was more significant among linguistically or geographically closer nations.
These findings can help researchers understand how colour influences our thoughts and behaviour in universal and culturally specific ways.
Gender and Color Preference
Along with culture, your biological sex may also affect how you respond to different shades and hues.
Investigated how colour preferences vary not only between different cultures but genders, too. They compared English and Arabic participants and found that their colour preferences differed, with Arabic participants showing stronger preferences overall. There were also differences between males and females within each culture.
For example, in the English group, males tended to prefer colours in the blue-green region, while females preferred colours between purple and blue-green. In the Arabic group, males had similar preferences to English males, but females strongly preferred reddish colours.
Found that both Indian men and women generally preferred cool colours over warm colours. This preference for cool colours was consistent with similar preferences observed in US participants.
However, there were some cultural differences in colour preferences, especially among women. Indian women preferred pink colours, similar to those observed in British, Chinese, and Arabic women. But, unlike other cultures, Indian women’s preference didn’t extend to purple and lavender.
The study also ruled out personality traits or gender schemas as universal explanations for gender differences in colour preference. While there are some shared colour preferences across cultures, the results suggest there are also unique cultural influences on colour preference, particularly for women.
Also suggests that women may perceive more colors than men do. They tested 60 healthy people, half male and half female, between the ages of 17 and 22. The participants were asked to match different colours with sample colour strips. The results showed that females had more correct answers and were faster at the task than males.
So, if you share a bedroom with an opposite-sex partner, don’t forget to work together when devising a bedroom colour scheme and get one of the best mattresses for couples.
Age and Color Perception
Much research has been done on how our ability to see colours decreases with age, with concerns dating back to 1942. “While few people younger than 70 have problems with colour vision, the rate increases rapidly through later decades of life, with the majority of the issues encountered with the blue-yellow colours.
This decline in colour vision may account for how older adults’ colour preferences differ from younger individuals.
Investigated whether colour preferences undergo further changes during adult life, focusing on younger and older native Germans aged 19 to 90 years, totalling 842 adults in Mainz, Germany.
Participants were asked to select their most and least preferred colours from four options: blue, green, red, and yellow. The frequency distributions of colour preferences for both age groups and sexes were analyzed, and all significantly deviated from chance, indicating strong colour preferences among the participants.
The findings revealed that blue was the most preferred colour for both age groups and sexes, while yellow was the least preferred colour. Green and red were in the middle of the rank order of colour preferences. Men and women did not show significant variations in ranking their most preferred colours. However, when it came to ranking their least preferred colours, men more often chose yellow and less frequently selected red compared to women.
The most significant changes were observed in the colour preferences with advancing age. As individuals aged, the preference for blue decreased steadily, while the popularity of green and red increased significantly. The study proposed several factors, such as changes in colour discrimination and visual imagery, yellowing of the crystalline lens, and decreased function of the blue cone mechanism associated with ageing.
Similarly.
Investigated the association between colour psychology and community health environment design. The findings showed that yellow was the most preferred hue, with different age groups showing varying colour preferences. Warm, bright, and soothing colours were preferred when feeling anxious, lonely, or emotionally unstable.
The results showed that older people (aged 75 and up) preferred brighter colours like red, orange, yellow, and green. Specifically, yellow was the most preferred colour by the elderly, with green and blue as the second and third choices, respectively. They were inclined to warm, vibrant, lively, bright, and cheerful colours. In contrast, they did not favour dark or dark colours like black and white.
Regarding lightness selections, older people chose medium lightness more frequently than high or low lightness. This indicates their preference for colours that are not too intense or light but somewhere in the middle. They sought a similar balance in colour purity selections, preferring not too saturated or dull colours.
This is an essential point for older adults and potential caregivers to keep in mind as they pair the right bedroom colours with a mattress for seniors. Other measures for bedroom safety, such as guardrails on a bed frame, can also minimize the possibility of falls.
Other Ways to Create a Relaxing Bedroom
If you want to improve your sleep hygiene with the proper bedroom set-up, there are a few simple tricks you can consider beyond the colours you paint your bedroom walls.
Darkness in the bedroom is essential. If light tends to slip through your bedroom window at night, consider blackout curtains to create an atmosphere promoting sleep.
It’s also helpful to remove as much technology from the bedroom as possible. Ideally, you should have only your alarm clock and cell phone, which should be switched off at night if possible. We suggest keeping TVs, tablets, and computers out of the bedroom, as they can feel distracting even if switched off.
Try to use your bedroom as little as possible during the day. For example, resist working on a laptop in bed if you work from home. Instead, try to save your bedroom for sleep and sleep alone.
Re-doing your sleeping space for increased comfort doesn’t have to break the bank. There are plenty of budget-friendly hacks and DIY tricks to makeover your bedroom, as Redfin discusses. You can even get creative with stencils and create a design that mimics wallpaper without the cost, bringing in distinct textures with different fabrics and materials.
Typically, the most expensive part of any comfortable bedroom is the mattress. However, you can squeeze the highest value from your bed by equipping it with one of the most durable mattresses on the market.
Frequently Asked Questions
What colour light helps you sleep?
Warm light is better for sleep because the eyes are less sensitive to the longer wavelengths in warm light. Light bulbs with a yellow or red hue are best for bedside lamps. Blue light, on the other hand, is the worst for sleep. Blue light from LED light bulbs and electronic devices disrupts melatonin production because your eyes are more sensitive to blue light.
Are white sheets a good colour for sleep?
White bedding is an excellent choice for sleep because the neutral tone doesn’t stimulate the brain, unlike bright red and purple tones. White is neutral and relaxing, pairing well with other colours conducive to sleep, including blues and yellows.
What colours make a room look bigger?
Soft shades and natural colours can make a small bedroom appear more prominent and open. Consider light blues, pale greens, and off-white colours for smaller spaces like studio or one-bedroom apartments.
Another technique is to paint the moulding a lighter colour than the walls, which gives the illusion of a larger space in a small studio apartment bedroom.
Strategically hanging a wall mirror can also give the impression of a larger room. Depending on the mirror’s angle, it can increase the amount of sunlight in the bedroom by reflecting what light comes in the window. This is a simple yet effective way to update your bedroom for summer.
What are good neutral tones for the bedroom?
If you can’t sleep, don’t force yourself to stay in bed—this increases stress and makes it harder to fall asleep. Instead, leave the room and do a simple activity, like writing in your journal or reading a book. When you start to feel sleepy, go back to bed.
What colour helps with anxiety?
Researchers have found that colour induces feelings of tranquillity and peacefulness, the opposite of anxiety. A blue room doesn’t alert the mind and promotes calm, so you feel more at ease—you’re more likely to fall asleep and stay asleep than you would if sleeping in a brightly painted bedroom.
Conclusion
Some of the best colors for sleep have a soft, natural hue that creates a calm atmosphere, perfect for deep sleep. Choose colors appealing to your taste and create a color scheme to enhance sleep. Light blue is one of the best colors for sleep because its soft tone creates a calm and inviting atmosphere conducive to sleep.
