How to Create a Bedtime Routine for Better Sleep
You wake up to your alarm going off. “Just five more minutes,” you say to yourself as you try to hit snooze. Once you are awake, you feel tired and calculate how many hours you have before you can crawl back into bed. The work or school day seems like Mt. Everest, and you are dreading every minute of it. Thoughts such as Why can’t I get a good night’s sleep for once and this is going to be the longest day ever, begin to run through your mind. This is the reality for many people when they wake up in the morning. Getting enough sleep is important for our mind and body but how do we achieve this? It all starts with a bedtime routine.
Why Create a Bedtime Routine?
If you struggle with getting enough sleep or want to improve your sleep quality, a good first step would be to create a bedtime routine. A bedtime routine does not have to be an hour-long process (unless you want it to be) it can be 20-30 minutes with a few activities to help prepare your body and mind for a good night’s rest. We as humans are creatures of habits which means we respond well to routines. Bedtime routines can help us condition our mind and body to recognize when it’s time for sleep. As you begin to create your own bedtime routine, you should tailor it to fit your lifestyle and what you think will be the most helpful to do before bed.
Activities to Help Create a Bedtime Routine
- Picking a bedtime: This may be the most challenging for some people because we tend to stay up later on the weekends which can impact our sleep during the week. Picking a bedtime and a wake-up time for the week and weekend can help your brain begin to naturally feel tired at bedtime.
- Put phones and electronics away: It can be difficult to put our phones away when we are scrolling social media or watching YouTube late at night. Putting your phone away 30 minutes or more before bed can help with sleep quality because phones and electronics emit blue light. Blue light can cause us to feel awake when we should be feeling tired.
- Optimal Sleep Environment: Creating the best environment for sleep possible is another important component of getting good quality sleep. This can include turning the thermostat down a few degrees before bed, getting blackout curtains, sleeping with a fan or some other white noise machine, and anything else to help you feel comfortable and ready for bed when it’s time.
- Cut down on caffeine use: Drinking caffeine late in the day has been shown to negatively impact sleep. It causes us to feel awake and can sometimes make us feel anxious making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. If you like caffeine you can drink it just make sure it’s about 6-8 hours from when you want to go to sleep.
- Write down tasks for the next day: If you struggle with anxiety, falling asleep can be a trigger. You may start to think about everything you need to do the next day. This can cause anxiety and worry, which can lead to restless sleep. Writing down your to-do list before bed can help move the thoughts from your mind to the paper, which can help relieve some of those anxious thoughts.
Key Takeaways
There are many different ways to create a bedtime routine and there are more activities you can include in it than the ones listed in this blog. The most important thing to remember is to make your bedtime routine your own, with activities you enjoy and can do. When you first start implementing your bedtime routine it might not completely revolutionize your sleep at first, but over time there is a strong chance it will help improve your sleep quality.
Written by:
Chloe Morning, MSW, LSW (Voyage Counseling)
Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash