Nighttime Rituals- Why a pre-sleep routine Is more important than you think

Having trouble sleeping? You’re not alone. 2/3 of the UK adult population suffer from disrupted sleep, if you’re one of them you might want to consider developing a presleep routine to get yourself into the right mind frame for good sleep.  

You might be thinking, aren’t nighttime routines for babies? Well, you’d be right, we teach our babies habits that will help them to know when it’s time to sleep. They thrive on a routine to help their brains prepare them for bed. A nighttime routine for an adult helps the brain separate the day from the night, and prepare the body and mind for a restful sleep. 

So how do we create a nighttime routine?   

It’s important to start with picking a time that you want to be in bed. We know how tempting it is when Netflix lets us skip the intro and go straight to the next episode, but resist! You have to be strict with your bed and wake up times. When you have implemented your nighttime ritual successfully, you’ll have trained your brain to feel tired when it's bedtime. You’ll next have to schedule a time when you want your nighttime ritual to start and for how long. You can spend 30 mins or hours undertaking it, it’s up to you how long you want to spend on it.  

So you’ve turned Netflix off, next it’s time to turn your phone off, or at least make a concerted effort to not look at it. All electronic devices emit a blue light which tricks the brain into thinking it’s daytime and we want to trick the brain into thinking we are very tired and very ready for bed. There’s a lot of trickery going on but it’s for the greater good.  

Here are some suggestions to help switch off, wind down and nod off.  

Journaling  

This has become quite the trend as of late and for good reason. The idea of a journal is to use it to express things that are weighing on your mind, the idea being it’ll reduce the desire for you to think about them in bed. This could be as simple as making a to-do list, down to work-related stress.It may not completely relieve you of the anxiety you have but visualising writing them down and them leaving your brain may give you some sense of calm.

The Echor sleep Journal is a self-guided notebook that contains powerful mindfulness exercises as well as space for you to jot down what is bothering you. It’s also gorgeous and environmentally friendly so who wouldn’t want that on their nightstand? 

Aromatherapy 

It’s a well-known fact that lavender is great for helping people relax and sleep. So the geniuses at Echor decided to put together a few more sleep-inducing oils (Ylang Ylang, Geranium & Sweet Orange), made sure they smelt divine and voila, created the End of Day Candle.

Lighting an aromatherapy candle is a brilliant ritual to incorporate because it forces you to take action (light the match, light the candle, blow the match out). It forces you to focus on something that isn’t work/family/life/home but to complete this activity and then sit down, take some deep breaths and smell the oils filling the room.  

Pillow Spray  

Whilst there’s nothing official to suggest using a pillow spray will help send you off into a restful slumber, spritzing our End of Day Pillow Spray is all part of the routine to signal to your brain it’s time to wind down. Pillow sprays that contain the right blend of essential oils for deep sleep, can be a great asset to your nighttime routine. Bonus points for them smelling incredible.  

Unwinding  

To prepare for sleep it’s important to avoid overstimulation, so you’ll want your evenings to be full of calming activities. Reducing your heart rate and blood pressure is conducive to a good night’s sleep, so you might consider some light exercise such as stretching, walking or even some yoga. But remember to make sure you finish at least an hour before bedtime.  Mindful meditation is also a great way to unwind, it will help you let go of the day’s stress in preparation for a good sleep.  

So you’ve got your bedtime set, you’ve completed your nighttime ritual and now the final piece of the sleep puzzle, getting into bed. Make this the very last thing you do, the moment your head hits the pillow try to block anything else out of your mind except drifting off to sleep.

Hopefully, these tips will have you sleeping like a baby…well hopefully not as babies don’t really sleep well…at all. Whatever you do choose to incorporate into your nighttime ritual it will most certainly help you unwind and prepare your brain for bed.