Perfecting your bedtime routine

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Craving that beauty sleep that you’ve been deprived of by early online seminars? Struggling to catch those zzz’s? These times are hard and sleep is so important to keep you functioning on top form! Here are a few tips to help perfect that night time routine in order to reset your mind and rejuvenate your body.

Setting the mood

Before you can even begin to unwind, setting the mood and preparing yourself for a good night’s sleep is vital. As such, creating a separate study space from your chill space is so important. Try to do work at your desk – studying in bed can make going to sleep difficult as you mind is still in work mode. We love an essential oil diffuser and lavender is a great scent to go with as it helps to relax the mind. Studies have found that the smell of lavender before and during sleep ensures a deeper sleep and a more energetic in the morning. Sleep sprays are excellent tools that make your pillow smell amazing and also ensures a deep sleep. Our favourite is Feather & Down Sweet Dreams Pillow Spray (£7 from Boots) which smells of lavender and chamomile which encourages a restful sleep and helps calm an anxious mind.

Calming the mind

Meditation may be a tool that can help you sleep better, it helps the mind to relax and allows you to take the stresses of the day away. If you do not know where to begin with meditation there are plenty of apps out there that can help you. Calm for instance is a great free app that can help you tailor your meditation to your own needs, once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll be asked a series of questions so that the meditations suit you. If you are struggling with sleep, anxiety or stress these meditations can all help to achieve a sense of calmness that can get you to sleep. This app also has sleep stories which, let’s face it, we all love being read a good story. The soft voices and calming sounds help you to drift off to sleep as well. Soundscapes are also an interesting feature where you can listen to sounds such as rain on a window, forest ambiences, and the crackle of a fire to name a few. I don’t know about you, but to me there is nothing better than listening to rain as you drift off to sleep!

Immersing yourself

Reading in general has always been a great way to send me to sleep. It’s best to avoid blue light from screens just before you head to sleep, studies show this light keeps your brain active and running and is not ideal for a good night time routine, so turning to a page in a book is a great way to focus on something and immerse yourself in a fictional world. If physically reading a book is not your thing, using audiobooks is a great way to just listen to a story without needing the effort to concentrate. Audible is a great resource where you have access to so many stories that you’ll be spoilt for choice. A feature that I enjoy is that you can change the speed in which the voice actors are speaking, by slowing down the voice it also helps your brain to slow down as the actor’s voices linger on the words. Music is also a great way to help unwind just before bed. Of course, it will not be the best idea to listen to heavy rock music just before you drift off, but there are plenty of places where you can find calming music to drift off to. Spotify has many sleep playlists where you can listen to relaxing music, they even offer some soundscapes too which immerse you in a fictional world with sound and ambience.

I hope these sleep tips can help you perfect your sleeping routine. These tips can help reduce your stress and make you feel a lot calmer and relaxed before falling into your slumber. Let us know how you get on if you try out any of our handy tips via our Instagram page - @inquirekent.