Alix wrote a post back in 2018 about her night routine and just did her AM routine as well and I realized I have never shared mine, which varies slightly! Quality sleep is extremely important to both of us as we have quickly learned how vital it is to set you up for a successful day. If I have a crappy night’s sleep, I tend to eat more processed food and sugar. This then makes me feel even more sluggish and I’m just a miserable person to be around TBH. It also might be the reason why I sleep trained all three of my boys at an early age (between 3-5 months old) because I realized that not only was I suffering but they were too. Sleep is precious in this house and I have worked really hard at fine tuning my regimen at night to set me up for a quality night and following day.
First things first: put the kitchen to bed. After the boys are in bed, I come downstairs and clean up all of the dishes and toys. Everything is put away. Dishes are back in the cabinets. Toys are in their proper bins. Blankets are folded up and the lights are turned off. I hate waking up to shit all over the counters because it just puts me in a bad mood. It might be the type A personality. It could be the OCD. I don’t know I haven’t talked through it all with a therapist (yet) but I am sure I have some trauma shoved somewhere deep down inside me. But DON’T WE ALL. Everything is buttoned the F up at night and it makes me feel like I am in control lol. And yes it all blows up in my face again the next morning but let me have this. I make my CALM tea and head upstairs.
Once upstairs, I plug my phone in in the bathroom and really try not to look at it the rest of the night. I stop the scrolling and the texting at least an hour before bed to shift my brain into sleep mode. I only make exceptions for really funny text strings with my closest girlfriends who know who they are (Alix is one of them) 😉
Now, the only lights that are turned on in our bedroom are the ones with red light bulbs. No harsh blue lights allowed. They disrupt your sleep. Look it up. It’s a thing. Another post for another day. But get red light bulbs. Makes your husband think you’re making the room all sexy when you’re not. You’re just trying to sleep like a baby (or like your husband if he’s anything like mine). The only light in my bathroom that I have on at night is my rock salt lamp.. I can see just fine with it.
I do my nighttime skincare routine and take my supplements, which include:
-Magnesium
-L-Theanine
-B Complex
-Inositol
I listened to a podcast with Andrew Huberman all about supplements to take at night to promote healthy sleep and magnesium was at the top of the list. I am off melatonin as the more I listen to health experts the more I realize melatonin really isn’t the best supplement for you, in general. I also don’t give it to my kids as it is known to inhibit puberty. I haven’t researched or looked into it more than that one podcast so I am sure everyone has a different take but I listen to what the experts tell me and follow it after consulting Alix, too 😉
Some nights I take an epsom salt bath and other nights I crawl right into bed and read with my amber light. I am getting back in the habit of reading before bed because 1. I love to read and 2. it helps my brain relax.. in a way that scrolling instagram does NOT. I also make sure my bed is feeling extra cozy.. all of my bedding here. I can’t recall if I linked my silk pillowcases or not in that post but for the sake of beauty and your skin and hair, get a silk pillowcase.
I sleep with my 40 oz Stanley on my nightstand and try and drink most of it first thing the next morning before my coffee. Am I successful most days? Nope. No I’m not but I do drink water before coffee, which IS HUGE. Picture of health right here.
I think that’s it?! It’s nothing groundbreaking but I am a creature of habit and love my little nighttime routine. I wear my Oura ring (Alix’s review here, which I echo) and I love it. It tells me when I slept like the dead and other times it tells me not to workout. Love that for me except that means I slept poorly hah. But overall I think it’s pretty spot on. It’s also how I track my steps as I don’t wear a fitness watch anymore, which is really freeing.
How do you wind down at night? Anything I should be incorporating? Leave a comment below!
xx, Heather
