Creating your evening routine
How are you sleeping? Do you find it takes you forever to drop off even if you’ve counted all of the sheep? Or maybe you fall to sleep fine, it’s staying asleep/the quality of your sleep that’s the issue?
Well whatever your answers are, a good evening routine will help you not only with your sleep but it will also have numerous other benefits including improved mood, productivity, self-esteem and even a reduction in stress and anxiety.
But what should an evening routine involve?
Well, as discussed in the Morning Routine post, a good morning routine should set you up ready for the day ahead; but an evening routine not only prepares you for a decent nights sleep, it also allows you to reflect on the day you have just experienced and also prepares you for the day to come. So it can be pretty powerful stuff.
Speaking from personal experience I notice a huge difference when I am consistent with my evening routine compared to when I fall back into old habits of falling to sleep with the tele on after scrolling on my phone. It might seem like a lot of effort at first and you will definitely have days when you want to revert back to the comfort of what you used to know, but I promise it is worth the effort of finding your evening routine and sticking with it.
And that’s what you need to do - find YOUR routine.
It is no use just copying someone else, assuming it will work for you and then giving up when it doesn’t stick. You have to allow yourself a little trial and error (same as with your morning routine) but you also have to stick with it long enough to make it a habit.
So where to begin?
Well firstly aim to have a time that you can stick to each night to go to bed. Obviously some nights you may be up later for whatever reason… say dancing the night away… but ideally we want to help our body clock out by not only aiming to get up each day at the same time but also putting our head on the pillow around the same time each night.
You need to allow yourself a wind down period. Now this doesn’t need to be epically long, however, between 30 - 60 mins would be ideal.
In this wind down period we want to:
reflect on the day behind us
prepare for the day ahead
calm the mind and the body
How do we do this?
Reflect - you can journal, practice gratitude or even think out loud to yourself.
Prepare - you could write a to do list for the next day, pack your bag/prep your food and set any necessary reminders.
Calm - this could involve having a bath, reading, gentle yoga, meditation or just simply listening to music and focusing on your breath.
It doesn’t need to be jam packed with everything, just what works for you.
As an example, I tend to have a warm drink around 8:30pm before turning all screens off at 9pm (see post on sleep hygiene for why this is important). I then prepare anything I need to for the next day (food, bag, to-do list), wash my face and brush my teeth. I will spend a little bit of time reflecting on the day, usually via journaling or thinking out loud before sticking on a sleep-cast/night time meditation, which I usually end up falling asleep to.
This routine can be condensed or extended depending on how much time I have, if I’m staying somewhere other than my house, or if I feel I need more time on certain elements. But getting myself into the habit of winding down from 9pm (my time of choice) allows me to have a better nights sleep and also a stronger mental and physical wellbeing.
It’s the little habits that we do consistently that make the biggest difference.
So start exploring your evening routine tonight!
If you currently go to bed at 11pm try maybe winding down from 10.30pm to begin with and then after a while maybe you will find you can wind down from 10 and be asleep by 10:30pm, giving you more precious time to sleep. Don’t rush it, don’t go in all guns blazing and overwhelm yourself with a long list of things to do before you climb into bed. Just trial and error one step at a time and find what works for you.
Reflect. Prepare. Calm.