How to Sleep Better in a Hotel

Ask for the right room before you arrive

The quietest room in a hotel is a decision, not luck. Lifts, ice machines, stairwells, service corridors, bars and street-facing rooms are all predictable sources of noise, and a request made at booking costs nothing.

Higher floors are usually quieter on street noise; away from the lift core is quieter on foot traffic. If you are arriving late, say so — being placed near a function room that finishes at midnight is an avoidable mistake.

• Request: high floor, away from lifts, ice machines and stairwells.
• Ask for a room not facing the street or the car park entrance.
• Avoid rooms adjacent to function spaces, gyms and bars.
• If a room is noisy, ask to move on the first night rather than enduring three.

The ten-minute room setup

Hotel curtains almost always leave a vertical gap where the two panels meet, and a hotel room is full of standby LEDs that read as bright at 3am. Both are fixable in a minute with things already in the room.

Temperature is the other easy win. Most hotel rooms run warmer than the temperature people sleep well in, and the heating or air conditioning usually needs to be set well before bed to make a difference by the time you lie down.

• Clip the curtain gap shut — the trouser hanger with the clips is the standard trick.
• Cover or unplug standby lights; turn clock displays to face the wall.
• Set the air conditioning cool and start it early; a room cools slower than you think.
• Strip a layer off the bed rather than fighting a heavy duvet all night.
• Put the phone on the far side of the room and use the alarm clock you brought.

Fixing the bed you were given

The pillows are the most common complaint and the easiest fix. Most hotels keep firmer and softer options at housekeeping and will bring them on request; you can also stack or remove pillows to get the loft your position needs, which matters more than the pillow's quality.

If the mattress itself is wrong — too soft, too firm, sagging in the middle — there is more you can do than most people realise, and we have a separate guide walking through each case.

• Call housekeeping and ask what other pillow types they have. They usually have several.
• Side sleeping on a too-thin pillow? Ask for a second and stack them.
• Back sleeping on a too-thick pillow? Remove one; a folded towel makes a low pillow.
• Mattress wrong rather than the pillow? See our hotel mattress fixes guide.

What to pack

A small kit removes most of the variance between one hotel and the next, and it fits in a corner of a carry-on. The most valuable items are the ones that control light and noise, because those are the two things you cannot change about the building.

• A sleep mask — the single most effective item for an unfamiliar room.
• Earplugs, or a white noise app for corridor noise and thin walls.
• Your own pillowcase; it smells like home and costs nothing to carry.
• A travel pillow if you are also on a plane or a train.
• A clip or two for the curtain gap if the hotel hanger trick has failed you before.

The first night is genuinely harder

Sleeping worse on the first night in an unfamiliar room is a well-described pattern, not a personal failing — most people settle by the second night. Knowing that helps, because the worry about not sleeping is usually worse than the room.

Keep your usual wind-down and, as far as the trip allows, your usual bed and wake times. Consistency does more for travel sleep than anything you can buy. If you have crossed time zones, getting daylight at the right end of the local day is the strongest lever you have — that is a scheduling and light problem rather than a bedding one.

Nothing here is medical advice, and we do not recommend sleep medication or supplements. If you routinely cannot sleep, at home as well as away, that is worth raising with a clinician rather than solving with travel gear.