27 Tips For A Perfect Night Routine And Better Sleep
Getting good quality sleep is vital for your overall health. When we are asleep our body recovers, builds muscle (if you exercise), and re-energises for a long day ahead tomorrow. I have created a list of 30 tips which will allow you to improve your nighttime routine, leading to a quality sleep and good health. Let’s dive in!
- Set a Regular Sleep Schedule
Our body likes consistency naturally, establish a bedtime routine and try to stick to it every day no matter what. This will help you regulate your internal body clock to function more naturally, and make you feel fresh every single morning.
- Limit Caffeine and Alcohol
Caffeine is known to affect cycle, avoid drinking tea, coffee or alcohol 4-6 hours before sleeping. This means you will sleep peacefully for 7-9 hours.
- Create a Relaxing Environment
When your room feels cozy, doesn’t your eyes just want to close? That is because your mind signals your body to relax which makes you feel sleepy. Keep your room tidy and cozy. You could even put some relaxing music on at night to help you feel sleepy.
- Avoid Heavy Meals Late at Night
Eating heavy meals before sleep mean that your body would have to digest all the food while you are asleep, this can lead to discomfort and poor sleep. Try snacking on healthy light food if you ever get hungry at night.
- Take a Warm Shower or Bath
Your body will feel warm and comfortable after following a warm shower, helping you fall asleep. This one always works for me!
- Use Comfortable Bedding
A comfortable cotton pillow and bed sheet will keep you nice and comfortable through the night, inviting sleep.
- Declutter Your Bedroom
Keeping your room organised and tidy will make you feel cozy and help you fall asleep faster at night. I get a little extra and like to light up my scented candles as well to my mind calm, and it always works like magic. Feel free to steal this idea!
- Avoid Screens Before Bed
Screens can be a massive distraction and ruin your sleep cycle. Set a fixed time for screen use at night, and make sure you do all your social media scrolling with in that time. Screen use is known to disrupt melanin production causing poor sleep.
- Practice Deep Breathing
Do you also tend to over think when it’s to go to sleep? I do too and what helps me the most is cutting out all the distractions, dimming the lights for 5-10 minutes in my room and meditating. It involves deep breathing technique with my eyes closed all my negative thoughts are filtered out of my system and my body feels relaxed and ready to go to sleep. This could prove to be game changer for you!
- Write in a Journal
Another powerful way to brighten your mood and relieve your mind of the stress that’s absorbed throughout the day. Talk about what went wrong and right today and create a to-do list for tomorrow. This will act as a quick stress buster and give you a sense of motivation for tomorrow.
- Read a Book
Read your novel to help you get into a relaxed state before sleep.
- Limit Daytime Naps
Having too many naps could ruin your sleep at night as you wouldn’t feel tired. Limit your daytime naps so that you feel tired at your normal bedtime.
- Stick to a Wind-Down Routine
If you follow the same set of activities daily before sleeping, your brain will start recognising it as “time to go to sleep”, and it will get easier for you to follow this routine.
- Use Essential Oils
Oils like chamomile and lavender can help with sleeping, you could make use of such ingredients.
- Adjust Room Temperature
Room temperature and is based on preference and can vary between people. I leave my window open as I personally prefer to sleep in a bit of a cold room, however, some people like warm temperature to sleep. Make sure the temperature of your room is adjusted to your liking to make sure your sleep remains uninterrupted.
- Listen to Relaxing Sounds
Spotify and other music platforms often offer “relaxing” sound playlists, such as the sound of rain and soft breeze. You If you have trouble falling asleep, listening to these sounds will make you feel relaxed making it easier it to fall asleep.
- Avoid Intense Exercise Before Bed
Intense workouts will activate your body, taking it out from the relaxed state. Avoid working gout before sleeping.
- Limit Fluid Intake
While keeping your body hydrated is good for the body, drinking too much water right before bed may lead to using the toilet multiple times disrupting your sleep.
- Practice Gratitude
Write a list of 5 things which you are thankful for before bed. This simple activity will leave you in a good mood before sleeping.
- Try Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Tense and relax each muscle group to release tension and prepare your body for rest.
When you lay in the bed, feel your individual muscles relaxing with no tension in them as you prepare to sleep. This will help you go to sleep faster and also make you feel relaxed.
- Set a Digital Curfew
Getting notifications repeatedly can be very annoying and more importantly ruin your sleep at night, put your phone on “do not disturb” mode to avoid that from happening.
- Wear Comfortable Sleepwear
Your favourite soft bed clothes will keep you comfortable at night while you sleep.
- Experiment with Weighted Blankets
Having weighted blankets can promote good sleep, as it is known to reduce the feelings of stress and anxiety. Try it out, it may become your favourite thing!
- Limit Bright Lights
Use blackout curtains or an eye mask to block out external light for a darker sleep environment.
Using dark curtains or wearing a sleeping mask on your eyes will avoid sleep disruptions caused by light, and it will also keep your sleep environment comfortable.
- Avoid Stressful Conversations
Try your best not to discuss or think about the things that trigger over-thinking, this could ruin your sleep.
- Use Guided Sleep Apps
Just like relaxing sounds on Spotify, you can find apps that feature stories for people to read before sleep. Its purpose is to help people fall asleep and they are quite affective at doing that.
- Reflect on the Day
Spend a few minutes thinking about what went well and how you can make tomorrow even better.
Think about the things that did not go so well today, and how could you make sure to avoid them next time. This will give you a positive mind and motivate you to make tomorrow even better!
Good sleep is essential to maintain a healthy body and feel fresh every single day. Therefore, it is very important to take care of sleep routine. All the tips mentioned in this list have helped me a lot, and I am positive that it will prove to be life changing for you too! Good luck.
