A stakewall helps a ton when building outside meadows. A stakewall is fast, easy, cheap, and doesn't require any landscaping. It breaks the mobs' line-of-sight and without being able to see you they won't actually aggro, they'll just wander around alerted outside. For the same reasons, stake walls are also very good for concealing little portal outposts in hostile biomes.

It's very important that the mobs never see you or any base structures or they'll aggro and you'll have to go kill them.

Stone walls are glorified stake walls. They serve the same function (blocking LOS) but can take a few punches from a troll and you can walk on top of them.

If you can't sleep your perimeter is too close your bed.