With coronavirus cases beginning to rise again, it’s no wonder that many of us have been struggling to sleep well. Since the very start of the pandemic, lots of us have had sleepless nights. We’ve been worrying about our loved ones, our health, our careers. But getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for our physical and mental health, both of which we should be protecting now more than ever. So it’s time to start focussing on our night-time routine. The following steps will allow you to have the best night’s sleep possible, as well as prepare you for the day ahead.
Cut Your Screen Time
The steps will get easier after this one, I promise. You’ve probably heard this a million times before, but it’s worth repeating. Using a screen so close to your bedtime will put your internal body clock out of whack. This is because our eyes see the artificial light from our phone as daylight, so by looking at a screen we are effectively resetting our body clock. And it isn’t just the screen itself that can disrupt our sleep, but the content that we see too. If we see something that we don’t like, it can make us feel worried and hamper our sleep. So to make sure you get the best night’s sleep possible, avoid your phone as much as you can before bed.
You don’t have to cut your screen time in the evening altogether. This is unrealistic for most of us, so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t manage this. Even just half an hour of no screen time before bed can improve the quality of your sleep. And you don’t just have to sit there twiddling your thumbs, counting down the minutes to bedtime. There are plenty of relaxing, non-screen related activities you can do before bed. Try reading a book or even take up a new hobby such as knitting or painting.
Find Your Ideal Skincare Routine
This is a must if you want to have healthy and glowing skin. Although we should all have a good morning skincare routine, our night-time routine is arguably even more important. Our skin goes through a lot in a day. It’s affected by air pollution, the dirt in our environment, and even our phones and laptops. At night, our skin works to restore itself and reverse the damage it has been subjected to the day before. But it cannot effectively do this without a little help from ourselves. Without having a good night-time skincare routine, we leave our skin susceptible to developing signs of ageing and other blemishes.
To keep skin healthy and firm, we must make sure that our skincare products are applied in the right order. Firstly, if you have been wearing makeup in the day make sure to remove this first, as your cleanser cannot do this alone. Then use your cleanser to make sure traces of dirt and oil are removed from your face. After this, use toner, as well as any skin boosters you may have. Following this, use your serum and eye cream to protect your skin from signs of ageing. The final step of your routine should always be using moisturizer. This is because your skin loses its moisture at night, so it needs to be adequately hydrated before bed. It’s also a good idea to have a glass of water before bed, to keep your body hydrated. And don’t forget to look after your hands too. It’s easy for the hands to dry out, especially now we’re heading into the winter months and we’re sanitising them more often. As well as using hand cream throughout the day, use a healthy dose before bed to allow your skin to absorb it in the night.
Find the Perfect Scent
Having the right scent in your room can do wonders for your quality of sleep. This is because our sense of smell and our ability to sleep is managed by the same part of the brain. This means that what we smell before bed can even have an impact on our dreams. So to have a pleasant night’s sleep (and avoid nightmares), it’s crucial to have a pleasant smelling room. There are a number of smells that can help you sleep better, the most commonly used being lavender. This scent can help you sleep as it is an anxiety reliever. It essentially acts as a sedative, which brings a sense of calm and relaxation. One study found that the scent can help us the following morning too, by making us feel more energetic.
But lavender isn’t the only floral scent that can help us doze off. Jasmine has been found to have a similar effect to that of lavender, as it also has the ability to reduce levels of anxiety. And it can even reduce your body’s movement in your sleep. This is highly beneficial, as you’re far more likely to have a better quality of sleep if you’re not tossing and turning all night. But as nice as these two scents are, they’re not for everyone. Fortunately, pretty much any scent you enjoy is likely to help you sleep better. Scents can garner a response from your brains’ emotional centre. When you smell a scent that you enjoy, your body releases the chemicals you need for a good night’s sleep. So find your favourite scent, settle down for the night, and let yourself drift off.
Focus on Your Breathing
Using breathing techniques is a great way to drift off to sleep faster. You can use them to help you relax and slow down your brainwave activity. It’s largely agreed that the best method is 4–7–8. This is a breathing technique that’s often used by people with anxiety to slow down their breathing, but it’s great for falling asleep too. To do this technique, simply breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold this for 7 seconds and exhale through the mouth for 8. When you exhale, try to do so forcefully through pursed lips. Use the technique consistently, as it is more effective when practised frequently.
If you want to spend more time focusing on your breathing techniques, try taking up meditation. Meditation is a great way to train yourself to breathe a certain way. For most of us, breathing is just something that happens — we don’t think about it. So it can be difficult when we first start to concentrate on our breathing. By taking up meditation, we allow ourselves to become more aware of our breathing and have more control over it. If you want some help to get you started, try following along to this guided meditation video.
Practice Being Grateful
Last but by no means least, practising gratitude is great for both your mental health and your sleep routine. One study found that participants who noted down the things that they were grateful for every night experienced better quality of sleep after just three weeks. Practising gratitude gives us a more positive outlook and reduces the anxiety which keeps many of us up at night. Before going to bed, try keeping a gratitude journal to put your mind at ease and prepare yourself for a good night’s sleep. And now that you have the steps to a perfect night-time routine, you’ve got one more thing to put in that journal.
Written by Siobhan Kelly
Siobhan is a recent Sociology graduate, with a passion for writing. Her degree has given her experience researching a range of topics relating to the Sociology of both physical and mental health. She has a particular interest in understanding how the effect that body image has on mental health.
