Learning how to build a nighttime routine is an underrated part of being fit and healthy. A goodnight’s sleep affects everything from heart health, to how attractive people find you (crazy I know but the studies are linked if you need some convincing), to how your body builds muscle and burns fat, to your mood and outlook on life.
Have you ever seen the video of the little kid crying hysterically and his sibling telling him he needs to take a nap? The crying little kid is me when I don’t get enough sleep. Not actually but I think you get the picture I’m trying to paint here. I’m a mess when I don’t get enough sleep, which is exactly why I needed to build a nighttime routine.
Sleep has pretty much always been the deciding factor on how my day was going to go and what kind of mood I was going to be in! If I didn’t get very much sleep I was not pleasant to be around. Sleep has always been really important for me not to be a miserable asshole and/or murder anyone. I’m not the most patient person as is so when I’m tired all bets are off.
Even in my mid-twenties, it would take me a least a week to recover from one single night out.
When I started getting more and more into fitness and health it became even more important. I realized how big of a role it played in my body composition, my health, and my beauty routine. Studies have shown that a lack of sleep was shown to make a person appear less attractive than when they were where fully rested. A good night’s sleep also slows the aging of skin and appearance of fine lines and wrinkles (study). This has more to do with an unconscious response to the appearance of overall health but still. (Click the links above if you want to take a look at the studies.) I started researching how to get better sleep and learning how to build a nighttime routine.
How to Build a Nighttime routine
There are a few different things that I found where really helpful for me in order to get amazing sleep. Everyone is a little bit different, but in general, these few things work the best to get the best sleep.
1. Set a screen curfew
The very first thing I did that was one of the biggest bits of help was setting a screen curfew. This meant that by a certain time all my screens had to be off and put away. For me, I always did 20:00 (that’s 9 pm in case you were having to try and do the math on that one.) This would help my body start getting ready for bed, noticing that it was nighttime and that I had to sleep. Plus it gives me time to do the rest of my nighttime routine. This can be done at any time for you, but it should be more than an hour before you plan on actually going to sleep.
Research has shown that using electronics before bed causes your body to stop the production of melatonin because the screen light mimics sunlight and makes your body think that it is still day time and that you need to stay awake. Which makes it way harder to stay asleep and messes with your circadian rhythm (your internal clock essentially.)
2. Quiet your body
Quieting your body helps take away all that extra energy that can be stored up from the day. It helps release any tension that you’re holding on to so you can completely relax and get some good sleep. I do this by stretching or doing yoga.
I love this part of my nighttime routine. Even though, sadly this is really the only time I do any sort of stretching (which is not good!). My whole body loosens up and starts relaxing. Any aches or pains I had from early in the day go away and I just feel relaxed and calm. It helps me to have a system that is already in place so I don’t have to think about it. I start with my feet and ankles and then move up my body. Claves, hamstrings, quads, hips, glutes, back, neck, and so on. I always end with shoulders and neck. It’s also really nice because it gives me time to go over everything that had happened that day, which brings me to my next step…
3. Quiet your mind
Quieting my mind is an essential part of my bedtime/nighttime routine. If I don’t do this I lay in bed all night and go over everything that happened in the day. I am a ruminator for sure. I go over things that were said, that could have been said, and how I could have responded to the things that were never actually said but could have been. It gets very complicated up there. I basically have imaginary arguments with myself that could have happened earlier in the day but didn’t.
The way to do this that works best for me is journaling and coloring. I like to journal first to get everything that I’m thinking, feeling, and everything that happened during the day out of my head and onto some paper. Journaling helps with decreasing feelings of depression and increasing productivity and success!
When I journal I write everything I am thinking, feeling, and worrying about. Seeing it all written down really helps with any anxiety I’m feeling. I can take a look at what I’m thinking and feeling a little more objectively and can see when I am being completely ridiculous. Which is kind of often if I’m being totally honest. After I get all my stuff on paper, I write three things I’m grateful for and three that made me happy that day.
To end it I write down all of my goals! Short term goals, like what I want to accomplish tomorrow or in the next week or so and long term goals, where I want to end up and what I want in my life. Studies have shown that writing down your goals makes them more likely to actually happen! I want some big things so I’ll take any help I can get!
The last thing I do to quiet my mind before bed is color! I bought an adult coloring book (it’s a Harry Potter one) and it is amazing! Coloring is a form of meditation, it gives you something that you can concentrate on but is easy enough that it doesn’t actually take too much mental energy. It becomes a type of relaxation meditation.
4. Create triggers
Creating triggers as part of a way to build a nighttime routine is really helpful to let your body know it’s time for sleep. This has helped me with my sleep so much! I usually have a hard time falling asleep when I lay down to go to sleep my body is exhausted but my mind is going nonstop and makes it impossible to go to sleep. My body just refuses to acknowledge that it is time for me to sleep. So I use the smell of lavender to tell my body it’s time to sleep. I spray lavender sheet and pillow spray on my pillows and all over my blankets before I start doing any of my ‘mind quieting’ things. One of the most powerful triggers our bodies have is smell because they have the strongest links to memories.
Have you ever smelled something and it brought back a feeling and part of a memory? You can exactly remember what the smell reminds you of but it brings back a feeling from a time in your life when that smell was around. Or if you have ever had the misfortunate that is food poisoning smelling the food that had made you sick before makes you feel nauseous again. That is the powerful way smells connect back to our memories and the way our memories affect our bodies and feelings and moods. It works the same way with trying to get your mind and body ready for sleep.
To each their own.
There are a few other ways to help make sure that you are getting the best sleep possible! Practicing good “sleep hygiene” is also really important to make sure that you are getting good sleep. A big part of this is making sure that your bedroom is used just for sleeping… well mainly for sleeping. But the main point for this is not to watch TV or YouTube, study, or work in the bedroom.
There are also a lot of different ways to build your nighttime routine, but those three components are the most important aspects to get a really good night’s sleep.
All the other details are interchangeable. What you use to trigger your body to know that it’s time to go to sleep or what you use to quiet your mind and body. At the end of the day (ha.. get it) you have to find what works for you! So go find that and sleep your pretty little faces off.
If you want more ways to create a healthy lifestyle check out the link.
