Define Your Perfect Evening – Nightly Routine

Do You Have A Nightly Routine?

If you are well rested, you will be better equipped to take on the next day. How well do you sleep? Do you have a nightly routine? Do you watch TV, movies, or play games on your phone or computer before bed? As I shared in the first post, “stimulation from the blue lights of electronics disrupts sleeping patterns.”

This is only one of the reasons a nightly routine is important. Another reason is to clear your mind of the events of the day and tasks for tomorrow. If your brain is cluttered with these things, there’s not as much room for rest and dreaming.

If you were to map out your evening routine, what would it look like? Do you go to bed without removing makeup or brushing your teeth? Are you on electronics until the very moment you put your head on your pillow? Do you work or scroll Facebook feeds, chatting with friends until you can’t keep your eyes open any longer? Whatever it looks like, it may be time to change for a healthier nights rest.

Healthy Nightly Routine

Experts say that reading before bed is or can be healthy and give you a better nights sleep. Researchers at the University of Surrey (UK) found that stress levels were reduced by as much as 68 percent (lifehack.org). While everyone’s nightly routine may be slightly different, there are a few things that most of us should do.

1. Wash your face.
2. Brush your teeth.
3. Take time to calm and quiet your mind.

Doing just these three things each night, at around the same time is an evening ritual that will help you sleep better. They are considered cleansing rituals that wash away the events of the day. Additionally, when you write down or as I call it, brain dump, all of the things on your mind into your planner or on a sheet of paper and prepare what needs to be done the next day, the night before, you are releasing them from your mind.

By freeing your mind from what you have to do the next day or any worries you might have, you release a lot of stress. By reading a nice paper book, and I’m not talking about self-help books, you allow yourself to fade into a story, relieving you from the worries of the day.

Unhealthy Nightly Routine

There are also things you should not do before bed because of their contribution to poor sleep. A few of them were mentioned above. Can you think of any others? Eating heavy foods before bed is not healthy. However, according to Juliette Steen, “Yoghurt and milk does [sic] help with the production of melatonin, which is going to help you sleep, so you could make up a small, basic smoothie which digests pretty quickly.”

There were a lot of heady articles with such detail that I didn’t want to numb your brain. So just know this, eating heavy foods before bed is not healthy while lighter foods may help promote sleep.

Read more here: 20 Things You Shouldn’t Do Before Bed

Playing games on your phone or computer stimulates the mind. These things are better left for an afternoon break. Drinking a lot of water or working out too much can also inhibit sleep.

Takeaways

1. Create a calming routine to wind down.
2. Dump what is in your head onto paper or in a list on your computer to free up your mind.
3. Read a paper book and fade into a story.
4. Eat foods that promote healthy sleeping patterns.

Until next time…

Other good reads:
Is Eating Before You Sleep Bad?
Why Is Blue Light before Bedtime Bad for Sleep?
These 6 Amazing Things Will Happen If You Read Before Bed

Cheers!