A Good Day Starts the Night Before | A Simple Bedtime Routine For Adults
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I managed 8 hours of sleep and it only took me three days!
You’ve said that before, haven’t you? I know I have. When my sleep numbers continuously added up like this, I knew I needed to do things differently. However, the answer lies a little further beyond adding hours of rest every night. The one crucial mistake I kept making for getting proper beauty sleep was so simple to fix that I’m almost embarrassed to share it.
Yes, it is important to get enough rest, but that isn’t the entire equation. You need to think back to a time in your life when you had a healthy bedtime routine. You got cleaned up, brushed your teeth, slid into some sweet Minnie Mouse jammies and it was lights out by 9. That may have been a long time ago, but it turns out that maintaining a consistent bedtime routine is the missing variable for a good night’s sleep.
What does a good bedtime routine for adults look like?
Great question! We are all different in terms of our lifestyle choices and needs for rest. These tips are a great place to start, and you can fill in your own specifics as you go. Let’s dive into how to establish a good bedtime routine. I want you to get excellent sleep tonight that will benefit your mood and your health.
Practice Good Sleep Hygiene.
Sleep hygiene is a specialty practice sometimes used by clinical psychologists to test the overall habits and routines of people with sleep disorders. Experts recommend choosing three relaxing activities right before bed. Keep the activities simple so you’re more likely to repeat them every night before you hit the sack.
I start my three-step routine with a quick hot shower or warm bath. I figured if it works for my kids it’ll work for me. There is just something so wonderful about climbing into bed when you’re squeaky clean in a fresh pair of jammies. Starting that wind down time with warm moisturized skin will help you get in the mood for sleep.
The next thing I do is sit and write a quick list of ideas, thoughts, to-do’s, etc. A brain dump right before bed makes me feel assured that I won’t forget something important the following morning. Do you ever wake up at 3:00 AM in a panic because you suddenly remembered that “thing?” Yup, you and me both. The pre-sleep brain dump has allowed me to fall asleep and stay asleep because I’m not subconsciously worrying about keeping my thoughts straight.
The last simple thing I do is some simple stretches on the floor next to my bed. After getting cleaned up and tying loose ends, that 10 minutes of stretching is the cherry on top. I use deep breaths to slow my heart rate. Breathe in for four counts and exhaling for eight counts. Doing this while I do some cat-cow and child’s pose sends that final signal to my body that it’s time to rest.
My ultimate piece of advice about your adult bedtime routine is to give it a chance to become consistent. I suggest trying your routine procedurally and practicing each step in the same order every time. Try your procedure every night for at least a full week (two weeks would be ideal.) Don’t make changes day to day or you won’t be able to tell what’s working for you. You may have an off night with a perfectly good routine. Be consistent and stick with it for a bit to understand the effectiveness.
Light + Time = Melatonin.
Your sleep environment should be as consistent as possible to trigger the correct phase of your circadian rhythm (the biological clock that cycles through a series of processes within a 24-hour period.) We all have the same 24 hours in a day and our bodies adapt to consistency to function healthily.
Your sleep environment should be peaceful and dark. I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this post, you mean business in improving your sleep. It’ll be very hard to remove the temptation to scroll through your phone at night if it’s within fingertip’s reach on your nightstand. That means silence your phone, iPad, and other back-lit devices, and stow them for the rest of the night. Tell yourself that your electronics need a good night’s sleep too. Put them to bed in their charging station away from your bed and get yourself a good old-fashioned alarm clock.
It might also be a good idea to get a sleep mask so your body doesn’t trigger the wake phase too soon. When your body senses light, it’ll stop producing melatonin. This is especially true if you are someone who travels across time zones frequently, so you need to simulate your routine as much as possible.
Dreamland is open every night from 11:00 PM - 7:00 AM including weekends.
The timing of your sleep is also very important and should be as consistent as possible. This means going to bed at roughly the same time every night and waking up at around the same time each morning. Aim to maintain the same bedtime and morning wake up even on Saturday and Sunday. Disruptions in your sleep patterns on a consistent basis are linked to increased risk of health problems with serious consequences.
Jessica Lunsford-Avery of Duke University School of Medicine, conducted a study that focused on the effects of sleep-wake patterns on a minute-to-minute basis over a 24-hour period. She notes in a Healthline article, “The more irregular these sleep patterns, the higher the risk for obesity, hypertension, and elevated blood sugar, and the higher the projected risk of developing heart disease over the next decade.”
Don’t worry too much about the health effects of an occasional disruption to your schedule. In the same Healthline article, Michael Twery, Director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, advises people to use such health studies as guidelines and not rules that doom your fate if you break them. You must assess yourself honestly and see if you need to be more consistent with this part of your adult bedtime routine.
Are you feeling inspired to go to bed now? Let’s do a quick review and action plan before you go.
Assess your Sleep Hygiene. Jot down a few ideas for your simple, three-step bedtime routine. Make it procedural and commit to being consistent for at least a week.
Make sure your sleep environment is dark, calm and relaxing. Remove the temptation to use your brightly lit devices and allow them to rest.
Use a sleep mask to help with light exposure, especially if you traverse time zones frequently.
Set a firm bed time and a firm wake up time, even on the weekends. Again, be consistent here and assess honestly how you feel after a couple weeks.
Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not seeing a ton of improvement. You may need to chat with your doctor about additional solutions, but a bedtime routine is a great way to improve your overall quality of sleep. You only stand to benefit by trying it!
I wish you all the best in your journey to Dreamland. Comment below to share your own three-step, adult bedtime routine. Your ideas might be perfect for another super sleepy reader.
Yours in Good Sleep,
Melanie
