The relationship between spirits and mirrors in the bedroom has been debated for many years. And no matter where you turn, it seems like everyone has a different opinion!
This guide will go over what bedroom mirrors mean for spirits, and if it’s bad to sleep in front of one.
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Is It Bad To Sleep In Front Of A Mirror?
These days, it’s quite common to have a mirror in your bedroom. After all, your bedroom is likely where you get dressed and ready for the day, so why not have a mirror nearby? Is it really that bad to sleep in front of one?
Depending on the situation, it just might be.
In many cultures around the world, sleeping in front of a mirror is counterproductive at best, and dangerous at worst.
Here’s why:
Your Energy Might Be Siphoned Away
If you hit the hay after a long day, then wake up without feeling rested and refreshed, the mirror in your bedroom might be to blame. Many say that a mirror can act as a kind of energy sink. Energy that you give off during the night may be reflected and captured in the mirror.
Unfortunately, all of that energy has to come from somewhere. Doing this means that the mirror is draining your energy while your sleep is replenishing it. In the end, you wake up just as tired as you were when you went to bed. For those who practice feng shui, this is one of the biggest reasons why it’s bad to sleep in front of a mirror.
All of that aside, there are a lot of reasons why you might not feel rested after sleeping. If this is something that happens routinely, and moving your mirror out of the bedroom doesn’t seem to help, talk to your doctor to rule out any health problems that might be contributing to your fatigue. Good sleep is too important to neglect!
Some Say It Can Interrupt Or Prevent Sleep
Since mirrors reflect energy, it’s thought that sleeping in front of one can alter the flow of life force through your chakras. This can contribute to physical discomfort and racing thoughts which make it harder to fall asleep.
A mirror facing your bed can also disrupt your sleep for a very practical reason: Reflections look very strange at night.
How many times have you started to nod off, just to notice that the jacket hanging off of the back of your door looks like a knife-wielding intruder? If you’ve ever suffered from sleep paralysis, you probably have a very good idea of how objects in your room can seem to warp and mutate into all kinds of threatening figures. The same thing can happen with reflections in your bedroom mirror. Waking up in the middle of the night just to see a face staring back at you is scary and can make it hard to fall back to sleep.
Mirrors also tend to make you acutely aware of all of the tiny, innocuous movements that happen at night. A subtle breeze moves your curtain in a way you might not notice, but its reflection catches your eye and startles you. Your cat jumps up on your dresser, and you only notice it because you see the reflection. Mirrors can be a very visually disruptive presence in the bedroom.
Having a dark room is also important for good sleep. This isn’t just to help you get to sleep, either — there are specific hormones that the body secrets during sleep in darkness, like melatonin. Mirrors reflect light, so having a mirror that faces a light source can make your room brighter than it should be for optimal sleep.
Mirrors do more than just reflect sights, too. Hard surfaces (like glass and metal or wood frames) reflect sounds as well. This means that having a large mirror in your room can actually contribute to sonic illusions and distortions. If you live in a noisy area, like a city, your mirror might be making your bedroom even noisier.
Nightmares
In some cultures, it’s believed that the soul (or an aspect of the soul) leaves the body at night. If all goes according to plan, it goes on a journey before returning to the body just before you wake up, resulting in you having a peaceful, restful, nightmare-free sleep. The trouble is that it doesn’t always happen that way.
Souls can be easily confused. If your mirror reflects you as you sleep, it’s said that your soul may be startled when it tries to leave. This can cause it to jump back into your body, causing hypnagogic jerks.
Your soul may also mistake the reflection for the real you when it tries to return. Its confusion and distress can disrupt your sleep, leading to nightmares, delirium, and terror.
Even if sleeping in front of the mirror in your bedroom doesn’t give you nightmares directly, it can still lead to nighttime distress. Most people are confused and disoriented when they first wake up. If you awaken suddenly at night and see your reflection, it’s likely to frighten you.
It might not be the same as a nightmare, but it’s still not a great way to wake up!
Inviting Sadness
One of the biggest factors that dictates how mirrors affect you is what they reflect. If your bedroom mirror reflects a blank, empty wall, a photo of a deceased loved one, or a window with a depressing view, then that mirror can contribute to an overall sad vibe and negative energy in your bedroom. It’s best to position mirrors so that they only reflect things that you want to see more of.
It’s said that bedroom mirrors can also invite difficulties into your relationship. Since mirrors multiply your luck and energy, including romantic luck, it’s believed that they can contribute to infidelity. Having a mirror in your bedroom symbolically attracts a third party into your relationship, which brings sadness into your home.
Are There Situations Where It Might Actually Be Good?
Now that you know the reasons why sleeping in front of a mirror might be a bad thing, are there any contexts in which having a bedroom mirror might be a good thing? The answer is yes, but with a few caveats.
In general, a mirror in your bedroom can be a positive presence in the following cases.
It Reflects Your Face
A small mirror that reflects your face can potentially block evil spirits from getting into your bedroom. You can’t just hang it up and hope for the best, however — you have to consciously stand in front of the mirror and cast your reflection on it in order for it to have this effect.
It Doesn’t Reflect Light
Mirrors that reflect light can be a problem because they may make your bedroom too bright and distracting for restful sleep. If your mirror doesn’t reflect light behind your bed, then you’re probably not going to have this problem. A mirror angled this way is also less likely to create strange reflections at night, and therefore unlikely to startle you as you’re trying to fall asleep.
It Reflects The Outdoors
Remember to always position mirrors in your bedroom so they reflect what you want to see. If you can make it create a pleasant reflection of the sky, so much the better. The sky is beautiful, restful, and generally not too bright at night.
It’s also said that a reflection of the sky will attract angels and positive spirits into your home. It results in a harmonious, balanced energy that can help improve your sleep.
How Spirits Interact With Mirrors In The Bedroom
As you probably know, spirits can behave strangely. As mentioned above, it’s even believed that your own soul can become confused by your reflection in a mirror. But this isn’t the only way that spirits interact with mirrors in your bedroom.
If your bedroom mirror reflects photos of a deceased person, that person’s spirit may be drawn to your room. Even if they’re not malicious, they may cause trouble out of confusion. This is also why some cultures cover mirrors after someone has died, so the soul of the deceased won’t have trouble leaving the home.
In some traditions, mirrors are considered potential portals. They may create pathways that spirits can follow into this world. The trouble is, these spirits may not be able to (or simply not want to) find their way back out.
Mirrors are also fairly common magical curios. They’re typically used to send energies and entities back to their source. To do this properly, they’re generally pointed away from the home, or toward the source of the problem. If a mirror in your bedroom is pointed at you, you may be the unwitting target of this reflective power.
Why Should Mirrors Be Covered At Night?
Since the problems and spiritual confusion attributed to mirrors in your bedroom are all caused by reflections, throwing a cloth cover over them is an easy, effective way to avoid all that. It’s simple enough to turn small mirrors to face the wall, but large wall or door-mounted mirrors are another story. In that case, you can use a sheet or tablecloth to cover them at night.
If your bedroom mirror is covered, spirits won’t get confused by the reflection and will be able to navigate more freely.
Covering a mirror is also a simple way to keep it from siphoning away your energy. Since sleeping in front of a mirror is also thought to throw off the balance and flow of energy through your chakras, a mirror cover helps avoid that, too.
Even if you don’t believe that a bedroom mirror creates energetic or spiritual problems, it can still be a good idea to cover yours at night. A simple cloth covering will help block reflections, so you won’t be startled if you wake up confused and groggy. Cloth is also soft, so it dampens sounds and keeps the mirror’s glass from reflecting them. Covering your mirror can be a simple way to get a more peaceful night’s sleep.
Will Mirrors In Your Bedroom Attract Ghosts?
Some people believe that simply having a mirror in your bedroom will attract ghosts. If this were true, you could expect there to be many more haunted houses than there actually are. No matter what you believe when it comes to ghosts, it’s unlikely that a mirror in your bedroom will be a ghost magnet all by itself. There are usually other factors at play when dealing with these kinds of events.
When it comes to ghosts, there’s also the fact that staring at a mirror can trigger hallucinations. You can trigger this on purpose by dimming your lights, sitting about three feet in front of your mirror, and staring at your reflection for about 10 minutes. After a certain point, you may notice distortions in your reflection, or begin to feel that the face in the mirror isn’t yours at all. Some people feel that this is evidence that they’ve attracted ghosts or demons through their mirror, but it’s actually a known, repeatable visual phenomenon.
It’s far more likely that a bedroom mirror will disrupt your sleep because it reflects light, sound, and motion. Even if you want a mirror to attract ghosts to your home, the conditions that many say are required to do so are pretty specific and don’t guarantee that one will decide to show up. That’s why the idea that sleeping in a room with a mirror will automatically summon ghosts is generally considered to be merely a superstition.
If you have a mirror by your dresser, not facing your bed or any photos of recently deceased relatives, there likely isn’t much to consider. As long as you’re still sleeping well, not suffering from nightmares, and your environment feels comfortable and relaxing to you, there’s really no reason to fix something that isn’t a problem. If the idea bothers you, a simple cloth cover can help you avoid the biggest issues attributed to bedroom mirrors.
Closing Thoughts
As you can see, sleeping in front of mirrors isn’t ideal if you’re trying to protect your energy and avoid confusing spirits. But with that being said, if you have a mirror in your bedroom and you haven’t suffered from any negative effects, you may have simply found a setup that works for you!
If you have any questions about this, send them our way. It’s quite an interesting topic to discuss, and we’d love to hear what our readers have to say about it.
