Which of the following is a healthy bedtime routine

5 Healthy Bedtime Routines for Adults

Many people leave the notion of bedtime routines behind once they surpass adolescence. Establishing a bedtime routine may seem like a process that is better suited to the needs of youths. But the truth is that adults can benefit from healthy bedtime routines just as much as children can—if not more so.

Creating a healthy, relaxing bedtime routine for yourself is one of the smartest and most nurturing things you can do for your body and mind. Most adults spend their days in a state of mental and physical overdrive. By establishing a proper routine, you’ll give yourself a chance to slow down, unwind, and refocus your attention on what matters the most to you.

One of the biggest advantages of creating your own bedtime routine is that it’s personalized to you and your specific needs. Many scientific studies have revealed the widespread prevalence of sleep disorders like insomnia. They’ve also linked work and home-related stress as some of the primary drivers of sleep anxiety. Establishing a nightly routine will help to address your stress levels by relaxing your body and your mind and preparing you for a great night’s sleep.

Here are 5 essential bedtime routines that you should add to your nighttime preparations:

1. Set a Bedtime Preparation Alarm

Consistency is the key to success, particularly when you are trying to establish a new routine or habit. You can help to establish a regular bedtime routine by starting it at the same time every night.

Set a notification or alarm on your smartphone to remind you of your routine at a set time, from Monday to Sunday. This alarm will act as a signal that it’s time for you to unplug from your blue light-emitting devices and start winding down for the night.

2. Dim Your Lights and Lower Your Thermostat

Our circadian rhythms regulate our core body temperature, which usually runs at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Interestingly, humans tend to sleep better in rooms at significantly lower temperatures than their own body temperatures. Lowering your thermostat to 65 degrees may help to induce sleepiness and promote longer, more restful sleep cycles.

One of the core pillars of the Wim Hof Method is cold therapy. Proper exposure to the cold can offer many health benefits, including the build-up of brown adipose tissue and fat loss, reduced inflammation levels, a strong immune system, more balanced hormone levels, and improved sleep quality. Exposure to cool temperatures also assists your brain in producing feel-good endorphins that naturally elevate your mood.

It’s important to dim bright lights or turn them off altogether while you’re preparing for bed. Exposure to blue light from smart devices, and any other bright lights will affect your circadian rhythm and keep you awake for longer. Your sleeping space should be cool, comfortable, and dark to help prime your circadian rhythms for sleep.

3. Limit Blue Light Exposure Before Bed

The screens of our televisions, smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers emit powerful blue light that stimulates your body’s circadian rhythms. Exposure to blue light keeps you awake long after it’s time to settle in for the night by tricking your brain and body into believing that it’s still daytime.

Various sleep studies have documented that exposure to high levels of light at night can lower our melatonin levels, delaying our REM sleep cycles and promoting restlessness. We recommend turning off all screens at least 30 minutes before bedtime, but preferably 45 minutes to an hour before sleep.

4. Enjoy a Relaxing Warm Drink

Warm drinks are soothing and comforting, and have the power to promote better sleep. Try a drink with notable sleep-promoting benefits, such as chamomile tea, which has been used for centuries to alleviate insomnia and sleep issues.

Many people swear by turmeric to promote better sleep at night. This curcumin-packed superfood reduces inflammation and pain in the body while supplying it with the antioxidants it needs to fight free radicals and regenerate tissues overnight. Add the spice to a delicious bedtime drink like golden milk, and remember to use a low-carbohydrate sweetener in place of sugar so you don’t receive an unwanted energy boost!

5. Take The Time To Unwind

Everyone’s work-life balance is different, but even if you have a frenetic lifestyle, getting a good night’s sleep regularly is essential to your wellbeing. Following a healthy bedtime routine should form part of your schedule, just as much as eating and exercise should.

According to sleep specialists, your bedtime routine should last between 30 minutes and one hour. This time frame will give you enough time to relax, unwind, and prepare for bed without feeling rushed or stressed. Plus, it will give you plenty of time to practice proven routines like the Wim Hof Method to ensure that you enjoy the highest possible quality of sleep.

Prioritize being consistent with your routine and you will effectively train your body to anticipate sleep at the same time every night.

Tips for Creating a Bedtime Routine

According to the latest research, adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep each night. High-quality sleep is essential for good health, and a lack of sleep can lead to irritability, trouble concentrating, and poor performance at work. Unfortunately, roughly one-third of adults in the U.S. sleep fewer than seven hours a night on average.

Creating and maintaining a consistent bedtime routine can help you get the sleep you need to feel well-rested and alert the next day. This may be easier said than done – especially if you tend to be active on your days off – but following sleep hygiene guidelines can help cement your bedtime routine and improve your sleep habits.

What Is a Bedtime Routine?

The actions you take each night before getting into bed are referred to as a bedtime routine. Creating and following a healthy, consistent bedtime routine is a guiding principle of sleep hygiene, a set of recommendations intended to promote healthy sleep. These recommendations involve both behavioral changes and modifications to your sleep environment.

Tips for Bedtime Routines for Adults

Your bedtime routine should represent a calming period that helps you wind down in preparation for sleep. There are steps you can take to establish an effective bedtime routine.

Go to Sleep and Wake Up at the Same Time

Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule every night can be tricky, especially on the weekends when people tend to stay up later. However, establishing regular times to fall asleep each night and wake up each morning is an important first step toward creating an effective bedtime routine.

Avoid Caffeine Before Bed

Caffeine is a stimulant that creates temporary feelings of alertness, which can interfere with your sleep cycle. The effects of caffeine usually peak about 30 minutes after consumption. For most people, drinking coffee or caffeinated soft drinks in the morning or early afternoon has a minimal effect on nighttime sleep. However, caffeine can continue to have noticeable effects for up to seven hours after you have consumed it, so it is best avoided in the afternoon and evening.

Avoid Alcohol and Nicotine at Night

Smoking and drinking alcohol can both disrupt your sleep cycle, albeit in different ways. Nicotine, like caffeine, is a stimulant that elevates feelings of arousal and wakefulness. This is true of smoking, as well as nicotine patches. Quitting smoking is also associated with sleep problems, but these issues typically clear up within a few weeks. By contrast, many people fall asleep more quickly after consuming alcohol, but sleep problems may occur later in the night after the alcohol has been metabolized.

Minimize Your Screen Time

Electronic devices with screens such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and televisions emit blue light. This light can suppress the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, and make falling asleep more difficult. Recent studies suggest that using screen devices for two hours or longer in the evening can impact your sleep.

Practice Stress Relief Techniques

Stress due to work, family life, and other factors has been linked to trouble relaxing at bedtime. Whether you enjoy meditating, a bedtime yoga routine, or a warm evening bath, finding ways to alleviate stress may help you fall asleep more easily. If a racing mind is keeping you up at night, it may help to jot down your thoughts on paper so you can mentally shelve your obligations until the morning.

Tips for Creating a Relaxing Bedroom Environment

A relaxing sleep environment is crucial for maintaining a healthy bedtime routine. There are a few measures you can take to optimize your bedroom for sleep.

Maintain a Comfortable Room Temperature

Your body temperature drops as part of your normal sleep cycle. Although some people may be inclined to raise the temperature of their bedroom or bundle up with cozy blankets to stay warm, studies have shown that an overly hot bedroom environment can interfere with sleep and cause fatigue the next day. Setting the thermostat a few degrees cooler generally promotes better sleep. Taking a warm shower or bath before bed can also help you relax by promoting a natural cool-down effect afterward.

Dim the Lights

The circadian rhythms that guide our sleep-wake cycles are largely based on exposure to natural light. This is why we feel more alert during the day and begin to feel tired after the sun sets. Exposure to artificial light in the evening essentially tricks your brain into thinking it is daytime, which can interfere with melatonin production. For this reason, maintaining low light levels and removing electronic screens from your bedroom can help you prepare for sleep in the hours before bedtime.

Block Outside Noise

Ambient noises during the night have been linked to sleep disturbances. Some studies also suggest nighttime noise can increase the risk of stroke or cardiovascular disease. If you are unable to guarantee a quiet bedroom environment, consider masking noise with the aid of white noise, ambient sounds, or relaxing music.

Reserve the Bed for Sleeping

If you cannot fall asleep after being in bed for 15 to 20 minutes, get out of bed and relax in another room. Do not go back to bed until you feel sleepy again. This helps reinforce the mental association between bed and sleep.

Experiment with Soothing Scents

Certain smells are believed to have calming qualities that can promote feelings of relaxation and tiredness. These include essential oils such as lavender oil. If you have a hard time relaxing before bedtime, consider using essential oils to help you wind down.

Consider Replacing Your Mattress

Mattresses develop impressions and indentations over time. This type of wear and tear is to be expected, but it may compromise the mattress’ ability to provide the needed pressure relief and support. A new mattress can not only help you sleep better, but also alleviate aches and pains for people with back problems. The average mattress performs for seven years before it needs to be replaced.

People with insomnia and other sleep disorders may have difficulty falling or staying asleep despite following sleep hygiene guidelines. If you still struggle to fall asleep after taking these measures, talk to your doctor about additional steps for improving your sleep.

References

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What evening ritual will help you sleep better?

It is not always possible to fall asleep quickly and soundly. Sometimes thoughts torment me, sometimes unpleasant dreams wake me up in the middle of the night. As a result, after spending several hours on the bed, you start the day exhausted and exhausted. To fall asleep healthy and sleep well, you need to perform an evening ritual. Preparing for bed will help you relax, let go of the past day and not think too much about the next day, which means you have a good and complete rest.

All of the following elements of the evening ritual are interchangeable. And you don't have to use them. We are demonstrating a certain model, on the basis of which you can build your own version of preparing for sleep.

Close social networks

Check mail, Facebook*, VKontakte, messages, Twitter, all networks in which you communicate. Then close them and put your gadgets away until the morning. If you set an alarm on your phone, then do it right away.

Make notes in your personal diary

You can simply write down briefly what you planned to do for the day, and what you actually did. Such records will help you analyze your productivity, look for mistakes and improve.

Write down random thoughts

Take a notepad and write down all the thoughts that wander through your head. You need to clear your mind before going to bed. You can, of course, use a computer or tablet, but still a notepad and pen will do much better.

Eat something light

You'll have to experiment long enough to find a light meal that will get you to sleep fast, good quality sleep, and energized mornings. Usually, light foods such as fruits, yogurt, nuts are recommended to be consumed in the morning in order to recharge with vigor and energy. But try, perhaps some of them, on the contrary, will help you fall asleep faster.

Take a bath

A hot (and possibly cool) bath will help you relax and get in the mood for proper sleep and good rest.

Visualization

Before going to bed, or already in bed, you can do visualization exercises. There are many options: an analysis of your work, life in general, an analysis of goals and results, you can imagine yourself at the moment when you achieve the planned success, or you can simply imagine yourself sleeping. Take 5-30 minutes for exercises, as you feel more comfortable.

Light stretch before bed

A little stretch before bed makes your body think that it is already relaxed and resting.

Read a book

Do you remember when you were a child asking your elders to read to you before going to bed? And then they themselves liked to read one or two chapters of a fascinating book at night? No wonder you slept much better as a child! To disconnect from the real world with its worries and problems, there is nothing better than to be transported to a fictional world. 15-30 minutes of reading will be enough.

Attention: this item concerns only the reading of books. Do not watch TV, play computer games, or open a web browser. And don't read books that are too motivating.

Sleep!

If you have done all of the above, then sound and healthy sleep will come to you immediately.

And three more tips to help you improve your evening ritual of preparing for bed.

1. Keep moving throughout the day.
The more you do, the more energy you will spend, which means that by the evening you will have a natural desire to sleep. If possible, go in for sports, at least do some physical exercise. After an active day, you will sleep soundly and calmly.

2. Give yourself enough sleep.
Most people need 7-9 hours of sleep. By reducing this rate, you harm your daily productivity (and do not listen to the arguments of people who sleep for 4 hours!). More is usually better than less. And if you are hyperactive during the day, then you will need even more time to sleep.

3. Having a good night's sleep is a great idea!
If you do not get enough sleep during the working week (and it often happens), then fatigue accumulates. And a good night's sleep is a great way to eliminate it. And remember that no one's sleep schedule is perfect, we are all looking for a compromise.

*Activities of Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation.

4 things to do before bed

July 28, 2020LifeProductivity

By turning just four sessions into a mandatory ritual, you can make your next morning much easier and your day more active.

Iya Zorina

Author of Lifehacker, athlete, CCM

1. Scroll through the past day in your head

Even the Pythagoreans had this practice: before going to bed, scroll through the past day in your head and evaluate each of your actions. This develops memory and helps you evaluate what you did right, what mistakes you made, what you could have done but didn’t, and why.

In the turmoil of the day, many events can get lost, and by scrolling through all the situations before going to bed, in a calm atmosphere and without rushing anywhere, you can take a fresh look at problems and even remember something that needs to be done tomorrow.

You can combine these memories with gratitude.

In 2005, researchers Seligman, Steen, and Peterson conducted an experiment called The Three Good Things in Life. The participants were divided into two groups. One of them was given the task every night before going to bed to write down three good things from the past day, for which they were grateful. It was necessary not only to mention them, but to justify for each event the reason for gratitude, what is so good about this event.

The experiment was carried out for a week, and the groups were observed for a whole month. It turned out that participants who completed the task all week were happier and less depressed, not only during this "thanks week" but also over the next 3-6 months.

All you have to do is remember three things for which you are grateful. To get a killer effect, remember five at once.

True, this case is fraught with sudden falling asleep. You don't even notice how you fall asleep.

2. Plan the next day

Another practice of the Pythagoreans was to mentally predict the events of the next day. Think about who you meet, what you say and do. All this had to appear in the mind of the Pythagorean so clearly and clearly, as if it had already happened in reality. So the prediction of events turned into their formation.

Of course, you don't have much time to think through the next day's events in detail, but you can easily scroll through the highlights.

Before going to bed, think about what you need to do tomorrow (reviewing the past day will help, you will probably remember some obligatory tasks), determine for yourself the main tasks that you must complete, you can even imagine several successful outcomes: getting up effortlessly at 7 :00, the way to work without traffic jams and traffic jams, a successful meeting with clients, etc.

By the way, you can do it in the morning, if you, of course, have time for such reflections.

3. Get everything ready for tomorrow

I immediately remember my school years, when in the evening I had to pack my portfolio with textbooks. This habit has long since sunk into oblivion along with the briefcase and textbooks, but it was very useful.

In 2011, the Travelodge hotel chain conducted a study that determined the time for choosing clothes for men and women in the morning. Oddly enough, it turned out that men choose an outfit for 3 minutes longer than women, who spend about 10 minutes on this ritual.

You can free up those 10-15 minutes in the morning by planning your outfit for the next day before going to bed. Just decide what you will wear to work tomorrow, remember if this thing is in the wash and if all the accessories are ready for it. Just a minute of thought, and you will no longer rush around the apartment, hastily iron something or put on wrinkled things.