Cockroach in my room Can’t Sleep[Tips & Tricks]

by Nihar Nayak
Updated August 10, 2024

Cockroaches are usually found in kitchens and bath rooms, but when roach infestation becomes out of control, they are found in every single part of your home, including the bedroom.

All roaches need food, water, and warmth, which a bedroom can provide almost all things. Bedrooms aren’t roaches’ first choice to live, but they can make it.;

Roaches are notorious for sneaking in through cracks or gaps in your windows, floors, ceilings and walls.

Once inside in your bedroom, they can hide in underneath bed, clothing, ward robe , drawers and bedsheets.

They are attracted to stains or crumbs from spilled drinks and feed on hair and dead skin .

Even empty coffee mugs or water glasses on your bedside table can be a good source of hydration for these pest.

Tucked into bed and ready for a peaceful night sleep or you awake in middle of night suddenly seeing a cockroach lurking in the corner of your bedroom.

The sight sends a cold shiver down your spine, you wake with panic and sleep become distant dream. If you have experienced this fear, you are in the right place.

This blog will help you regain control of your sleep environment and provide fast and effective solutions for immediate relief when a pesky cockroach makes an appearance in your bedroom.

Whether it is a single roach or a recurring infestation, there are a range of methods to tackle this problem, from squash-and-sanitize techniques to natural repellents like essential oils.

Take a deep breath because, with the help of these quick fixes, you can restore peace to your sleep environment and reclaim your sweet dreams.

Cockroaches rarely infest bedrooms, but that’s normally due to a lack of interest. They prefer to live wherever food and water can be found in abundance.

Both of them are usually in the kitchen or bathroom, but your sleeping area may suffice.

Common attraction of Roaches to Your Bedroom

Good Nesting Conditions

Good nesting conditions in bedrooms attract roaches because they hide and nest in humid, dark, and calm places.

The bedroom is usually calm because we have spent a few hours in the bedroom, so roaches have a great opportunity to crawl and move safely in a room.

At night, the bedroom is dark, and you will normally be asleep, and cockroaches may crawl over you during sleep. These night times are a favorite for many pests.

If your bathroom is adjacent to a room or inside a room, it allows steam from hot showers, which also attracts roaches.

Clutter

If you keep your room unkept, clutter also attracts roaches. Clutter provides space for roaches to hide and lay their eggs. Boxes, Storage containers, clothing, and items in your bedroom are ideal hiding places for roaches.

Dead Skin and Hair

Cockroaches are omnivores, and they eat everything that comes their way, including dandruff, nails, skin flakes, and hair. The bedroom is the treasure of all these things, especially the bed and laundry basket.

Food Crumb

If roaches have any food around them, they readily come from their place. For living, roaches eat food debris, food crumbs, leftover food, and even traces of food that are left on wrappers, so cleaning habits must be necessary for roaches in your room because eating in a room may always leave traces on the floor, etc.

Roaches in my clean room

If you keep your room clean but find roaches in it, this might disturb you. But remember, cleaning is not the only solution to keeping roaches away; there are other ways for them to access a bedroom. Following are the reasons why roaches are in your clean bedroom.

The reasons for cockroaches in your bedroom may be;

Crevices and cracks on the floor, as well as roaches hiding in spaces between them,
Gaps along your windows or walls make a way to roaches in your house.

Boxes or moving gear stored in a room that contains roaches
Old clothes that were infested with roaches are still present in your wardrobe.
Roaches also make their way from the bathroom to the bedroom.

Hiding Places of Roaches in Bedroom

The most common hiding spots of roaches in bedrooms are given below:

Inside Closets
Under beds
Underneath dresser
Around the ceiling fan Outlet
Underneath Cloth Piles
Dark cabinets
Drawer backside
Inside wall outlets
Inside or Behind appliances like AC units
In wall molding, especially cracks or gaps

The Health & Emotional Toll: More Than Just a Nuisance

Health Risk: (Physical Concerns)

Roaches carry allergens in their saliva, faeces, and shed skin that can trigger allergies and worsen respiratory issues like asthma.
Also carries harmful microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that may contaminate surfaces and food.

Mental & Emotional Impact:

Immediate Anxiety & Fear:

The sudden appearance of a roach in the room causes
panic and shock, especially at night.

Disgust & Feeling of Uncleanness:

The sudden scene of a roach not just causes
fear, but also feels disgust even when you see a single roach , making your home dirty, no matter how much you clean.

Sleep Deprivation:

Anxiety over seeing a roach makes it difficult to relax or fall
asleep, leading to fatigue and irritability.

Quick Actions: What to do right now when you see a roach

Stay calm: Don’t panic. The more composed you are, the quicker you respond. Acknowledge your anxiety, but shift your focus to the next immediate step.

Expert Tip: If the sight of cockroaches makes your heart race, practice deep breathing exercises or use calming essential oils to help regain composure and sleep. Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and exhale through your mouth for 6 seconds.

if your room is clean and you care about all the above reasons but still see a roach in your bedroom, it may be an alone intruder you easily get rid of.

If you are interested in more complicated and lengthy methods of eliminating roaches, here are some quick techniques.

Start with the easiest method, but if its don’t work, try another and try the one that most suits you,

Frequent Cleaning:

Focus on the area where you see a roach; it may leave behind droppings, traces, or egg casings. Vacuum thoroughly around the sighting area to remove any potential food particles or other hazards. Empty the vacuum outside immediately.
Wipe down all nearby surfaces with a disinfectant cleaner. This not only cleans surfaces but also clears away any scent trail that attracts more roaches.

Sealing Small Gaps (Temporary):

Point out the place from where the cockroach enters in your room. If it is a small gap or hole from where it can appear, seal that point. Use painter tape or similar to temporarily seal any visible cracks or gaps where the cockroach might have entered or hidden.

Try to Kill Roach

Killing a roach is one of the best methods to get rid of them for peaceful living and sleep. There are some easy and rabid methods to kill roaches.

Step on them

The easiest and quickest method is to kill roaches by stepping on them and squashing them with a brush, shoe, or any other hard or tail object available.

But this can only be done when the roach is visible and in quantities of one, two, or three, not for the colony.

However, according to the World Health Organization, squashing could spread diseases, trigger allergies, and cause other problems because it carries harmful bacteria.

So, after squashing, sanitize the surface properly.

Bait or Traps

The cockroach gets stuck in the trap easily because the trap consists of moist space and sugar. Both are roach-loving. The smell of sugar and moisture attracts roaches, so they eat sugar with poison present on bait and readily kill on the trap.

Killing with Bug Sprays

This is also an excellent approach to killing roaches when you see them at night.

Just use insecticide spray on the area where you see them, leave them alone for 20 minutes, and all the roaches will die. Ventilate the room for 10-15 minutes to let the spray smell out into the room.

Use Lysol disinfectant spray or hair spray as an alternative to insecticide if you don’t have it.

Repel roaches from the room

Garlic, Lemon Grass, and Pandan leaves

All of them have a pungent smell, which roaches don’t like and run away from.

The study conducted at Tanku Abdul Rehman University College concluded that these are highly effective repellents.

Simply place the leaves of any of them in your bedroom or around your bed, and roaches stay away from you.

A study shows that of all of them, lemongrass is the most effective, followed by Pandan Leaves and garlic, with or without methanol.

Plant	Efficiency without Methanol	Efficiency with methanol
Lemon grass	80%	91.67%
Pandan Leaves	60%	61.66%
Garlic	31.6%	22.22%

In both experiments, lemon grass showed the best results and proved to be the best repellent. This study was done on American roaches, but the results took a long time compared to killing them directly.

Essentials Oils

Essential oils are also the best repellents for roaches because of their scented smell, which is not tolerable to them.

Simply make a spray by combining it with water and spraying it in a room or around your bed.

The oil’s smell helps roaches stay away from your bed and gives you a pleasant smell that soothes you and changes your mood. Common Essential Oils are;

Lavender
Peppermint
Rosemary
Oregano
Neem
Citrus
Eucalyptus
Cyprus

Change the Room

Lastly, if nothing works or if you are not in the mood to eliminate roaches from your room, move to another room of your house or share the bedroom with your siblings or parents.

When you wake up the next morning, try these easy steps to exterminate roaches.

When to Need a Professional Exterminator:

When you start to observe the following signs, call a professional exterminator to get rid of the roach infestation because, at this level, DIY is not enough to successfully eliminate the roaches from your bedroom.

Signs of a Severe Problem:

Frequent sighting of roaches, even during the daytime.
Seeing roaches in multiple rooms, not just in your bedroom.
Presence of cockroach droppings in your room, especially on corners,
beneath the furniture, or in other hidden places.
A strong, musty odor in affected areas.

Expert Tip: Severe infestation can not be eliminated through surface-level cleaning, and store-bought sprays often require professional pest control for effective and lasting eradication.

When DIY Isn’t Enough:

If DIY methods have failed, even after several weeks, or have
shown ineffectiveness to eliminating roaches.
If you’re not capable to identifying the species or the source of the
infestation.
If you have any health concerns that make DIY chemical use risky.

What a Professional Can Do:

A professional exterminator goes step by step to successfully eliminate the
infestation. Which include
Thorough inspection to identify species and entry points to decide the
treatment, which is suitable for you.
Targeted treatments (sprays, baits, dusts) are not available to consumers.
Access to specialized equipment and techniques to the successful elimination
of species.
Follow-up visits to ensure the success of the process and the prevention of
further infestation.

Keeping Your Bedroom Roach Free: Long-Term Prevention

Sanitation is Key:

A clean and organized bedroom is your first line of defense to prevent roaches to entering your room. Vacuum and mop your room on a daily basis, thoroughly cleaning any surface, especially under furniture, removing food particles and debris.

Store all edible items in air-tight jars; don’t place used containers, coffee mugs, etc, in your room for a long time. Empty the trash bin regularly if present in a room.

Exclusion:

Seal all cracks and holes in walls, floors, and baseboards with caulk or plaster. Install door sweeps and repair damaged window screens if any are present. Seal around pipes and utility lines entering the bedroom to prevent roach entry in your room.

Expert Tip: Seal all cracks, crevices, and entry points, no matter how small, as cockroaches can squeeze through tiny gaps.

Conclusion

You can easily reclaim your sleep and sanctuary by taking immediate actions, understanding attractants like what things attract roaches in your home, choosing an effective DIY or professional solution, and implementing long-term prevention.

Just remember, you have the power to reclaim your comfort from these unwanted guests. The anxiety & discomfort you felt are valid, so don’t let a cockroach disturb your sleep and peace of mind. By adopting the above approaches and by taking steps, you are actively addressing your problem.

Frequently Ask a question

Does avoiding snacking in the room keep roaches away?

Yes, avoid snacking to keep roaches away. Roaches are attracted to food and water. Limit snacking and drinking to another room to avoid roaches.

Is keeping the light on helpful to keep roaches away?

No, sleeping with light is not helpful to keep away roaches. However, they prefer darkness and are more active at night. They avoid light to hide from or escape predators.

Do roaches crawl in your mouth when you are sleeping?

In real life, this is not possible because there is no access to your mouth while sleeping. Although it is a dark, warm, and moist place, it is closed during sleep, and roaches are also afraid of humans.