Nightly Routine

Nightly Routine - 

Help relax before bed, decrease the chances of nightmares.

Stress Affects Your Sleep 

We know how important sleep is, but why do we struggle to fall asleep, or even stay asleep? Stress plays a big part during the day, and at night. For us to help avoid nightmares and gain overall a good night’s sleep, we need to become aware of our stressors and create a relaxing night routine. Now stress happens every day, we cannot avoid it. What we can do is find healthy ways to handle situations that are stressful to us. For us to become aware of our stressors we are going to need to define stress. Stress can be defined as a reaction to change. We react to change, three ways physically, mentally, and behaviorally. 

Become Aware of Your Stressors. 

To help become aware of your stress, practice taking note of when you start to feel stressed. I personally carry around a little notebook. With technology these days there are so many apps that can help you take notes/journal. Hey, you can even tell your Alexa to take notes for you. When we gain knowledge of when we are becoming stressed, we then can communicate with others about how we are feeling. This will lead to you working on some of your stressors. 

Possible Current Nightly Routine

Now, let’s focus on our nightly routine. Most fall asleep on the sofa, watching the news, sports, or some random TV show. Then we might wake up a few hours with a kink in our neck and debate if we should stay where we are or move to the bed. There are some of us who might have fallen asleep in their bed, but with the TV or fell asleep scrolling through social media. None of these scenarios gives us a promising good night’s sleep. We need to give ourselves about an hour off the electronics before we go to sleep. 

New Healthy Nightly Routine 

So what do you do for that hour before you fall asleep? Well, this could now be your “me time” or if you have a family this is a scheduled time for everyone to get ready for bed. Get ready for the next day, this can include making lunches and picking our clothes. Set the coffee timer or make sure the things you need for work or school are organized and ready by the door. When you are ready for the following day, start your bedtime routine. Start with the basics of brushing your teeth and hair. Change into your pajamas. Make time to read to yourself and/or your kids. Set a time to journal about your day. Set a few minutes either for some light yoga or stretches. If after all is said and down, you still have time or can’t fall asleep. Try repeating journaling or reading. You can always try some meditation apps or meditation music. 

Remember 

Try to avoid staring at the clock. Remember this is a new habit, add things slowly and give yourself time to learn this new schedule. I say start with 15 mins and work your way up to an hour.