Whether you are staying in a hotel on a business trip, or as part of your holiday, getting a good night's sleep can be very difficult, yet also very important. Having a poor night's sleep can make you irritable and tired during the day. If you're on a business trip it may very well be the case that you will need to attend several very important meetings, and these will require you to be at your peak of performance. If you're on holiday, you will want to be able to feel relaxed and happy and able to fully enjoy your precious time.

There are a few techniques to try to help you gain a good night's sleep whilst staying in a hotel, and these are worth trying the next time you go away. A key ingredient to getting a good night's sleep in an unfamiliar location is to try to have things which are familiar to you with you. So, for example, try to take a couple of familiar pictures with you, and place them on your unit or bedside table. It may seem odd, but if you have plenty of room in your bag, taking your favourite mug with you and sitting down in your hotel room drinking a cup of tea from your own mug, wearing your favourite slippers can make you feel much more relaxed and ready to sleep well.

Another thing which can really aid a good night's rest is lavender. It has long been established that the scent of lavender helps tremendously in getting you to sleep, and remaining asleep for longer. You can either take a spray which you can put on to the bed sheets and pillow just a little while before you go to bed, or have a scented pouch nearby, or tucked inside your pillow case. Combined with having a couple of your familiar items around, this will help you a great deal.

Another factor which can really interfere with our normal sleeping ability is a changed routine. If you normally read for twenty minutes before turning out the light at 11 o'clock, try to do this on holiday too. Your body gets used to your normal routines and times, and any change to this is likely to cause it to struggle more to get to sleep or relax properly. Clearly it isn't always practical, and may not be preferable, but whenever possible, try to achieve this and you will find it helps a good deal.

If you're on a business trip, try to call home a little while before you go to bed. Have a chat with your family, and this will help to settle you and make your familiar home surroundings seem closer.

Familiar scents and smells have a huge impact on our well being and state of mind, and this is also true for our cosmetics. Restrictions on the amount we can take with us on holiday mean that often people buy specially sized travel cosmetics, but these will be different scents to usual. Instead, buy some empty screw cap pots and transfer your usual shampoo, bubble bath and so on into these. Not only is this better for the environment, it will bring more of your familiar scents to you and help you feel much calmer and able to sleep well.