Why Your Bedtime Routine Sucks

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Remember the days when your parents insisted that you turned off the television hours before bedtime? The memories of spending the last waking hours of your day splashing around with your rubber duckies, practicing good dental hygiene and listening to your favourite bedtime story seem far too distant, don’t they?

Fast forward to your current reality.

It’s 11:45pm. You’re scrambling to tear yourself away from your phone. Your head hasn’t even hit the pillow and you’re already dreading the 6am wake-up call. It takes an hour to fall asleep. You check your phone, conveniently within an arm’s reach, throughout the night in search of “urgent” messages. And just when you think you’ve drifted into your first REM cycle, your alarm goes off.

You’re jolted out of bed, but refuse to accept that this is happening. Instead, you hit snooze as many times as possible and save just enough time to get your life together and scurry out the door.

On occasion, you get lucky and manage to get a full 8 hours of slumber. You think, YES — nailed it! But then, you find yourself equally, if not more, tired than you would on any other day.

We justify our forever-state of tiredness by telling ourselves lies that being tired is normal. In fact, I’d argue that we treat being tired as a badge of honour (slotted right next to “being busy”).

We guzzle $5 cups of coffee all day long, spend $100’s on eye serums and seek solace in the latest juice cleanse in hopes in “boosting our energy”. We self medicate with melatonin, prescription sleeping aids and CBD because we are so keyed up at night, that we can’t fall or stay asleep.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking any of these strategies. I live for my morning coffee and spend way too much on skincare products (by the way, sweet almond oil works well for dark circles!). However, it’s time that we wake up (pun intended) and see that we are literally throwing money at the symptoms due to our unwillingness to face the real problem.

Poor sleep hygiene.

Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve been a great sleeper all of my life — just ask my parents. But one day, I found myself consistently struggling to fall asleep. I’d lay awake for hours, tossing and turning. As a pro-sleeper, this was a real concern.

I needed professional help. I turned to my naturopath for advice. This is when I was first introduced to the concept of sleep hygiene.

Being a millennial, it was only natural that I expected a quick fix solution: a handful of overpriced natural supplements. Instead, I was advised to get blackout blinds, put my phone away at 9pm and drink ‘wind down’ tea.

Wait, did I just pay someone $125 to tell me to redecorate my room and to go to bed on time? She can’t be serious??

I can’t lie. I was annoyed. At the same time, I respected her holistic, common sensical approach.

The reality that none of us want to face is there is no quick fix when it comes to health. We need to do the work and the work is creating habits that inconvenience our current lifestyle choices.

My unscientific, personally proven approach to practing good sleep hygiene:

1. Go to bed consistently at the same time each night, yes even on the weekends. I’m that person who is yawning minutes before 10pm at the Saturday night rager. Sorry, g2g,bye!
2. Shut down electronics 30 minutes before lights out. I think 60 minutes is ideal, but I get the urgency of needing to check all of your Instagram stories before bed. It’s called, peace of mind.
3. Set the tone. Dim the lights, light candles, use your favourite bedtime spritz. Over time, your body and brain will start to recognize this as a signal that it’s time for bed.
4. Create a relaxing routine. For me, that’s taking a hot shower, followed by my night time skincare routine and applying lavender essential oil on neck. Sometimes, I zen out to music or a guided meditation.
5. Snuggle up with a cup of calming tea (chamomile lavender is my favourite) and a light read. You may want to save emotionally charged materials, like thriller novels, for another time.
6. Ensure your bedroom is pitch dark. If blackout blinds don’t do the trick, invest in a sleeping mask. I got mine for $15 on Amazon.
7. Remember that vintage device called an alarm clock? Ditch your phone and invest in a gentle-wake up alarm clock. You’ll thank me later.
8. Wake up at a regular time each day. Yes, even on the weekends. I get up at 6:30am M-F and aim for 7–7:30am on weekends. You can stop rolling your eyes now. I’m telling you, it works!
9. Avoid caffeine after a set time. For me, this is 1pm. Experiment with what is right for you.
10. Use night mode or download a blue light filter application on your devices that automaticaly adjusts the lighting during evening hours.

These all sound really simple, right? Here’s the thing, simple doesn’t translate to easy.

Developing good sleep hygiene requires giving up your bad (and sometimes addictive) habits.

Here are 5 strategies to help you get started:

1. Start small. Select 1 or 2 habits to begin with and slowly build from there.
2. Hold yourself accountable through using a habit tracker. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Think of the chart with the gold stickers that your elementary school teacher used.
3. Reward your consistency. Practiced your new habits 7 days in a row? Splurge on that fancy latte! You deserve it.
4. If you live with others, get their buy-in. Although in an ideal world, they would be working on their own sleep hygiene habits in solidarity, this may not be realistic. Share with them what your goals are and ask for their support.
5. Fell off the wagon? It’s all good. Creating new habits is hard work and takes practice. Offer yourself forgiveness and get back on that sleep hygiene train.

It’s now 10:43pm, so I must cut this short and wish you a good night.