How we end our day is just as important as how we start it. By making the smallest changes to your nightly routine, you’ll start to notice a positive shift in not only your wellbeing, but also in your life. Want some ideas on how you can bring more nourishing habits into your nightly routine? I got you!
Hydrate Right When You Wake Up
Wanna know the magical, secret ingredient to starting your day right? Here, i’ll tell you.
Do you ever wake up feeling tired, thirsty, or even really hungry? Chances are, you’re dehydrated, and you just need a really tall glass of water. When people say water is life, that’s because it is. As humans we are made up of 60% water! Yes, 60! So, when we don’t fill up our bodies with what we are literally made up of, how can we function at our best? Say you’re hungry and you start getting that stomach rumble, it may just be your body saying, “I’m thirsty and I need water!” Same goes when you wake up with that groggy feeling. While your first instinct may be to go back to bed or to grab yourself a cup of coffee, before you do that, drink a big glass of water and see how you feel. So if you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait, water, that’s the secret ingredient?”, test it out for yourself. Before you go to bed tonight, set aside a glass of water by your bedside for when you wake up. In the morning, notice how you feel when you wake up, gulp down that glass, and then notice how you feel after you’ve hydrated. Begin implementing this into your routine and you’ll begin to notice a big shift in how you start your day.
Put Your Phone Away
Nowadays, it can feel as though our cellphones are almost like an extension of us. These things can be really hard to let go of, even during the times when we really don’t need it. I know the feeling, the one that feels like you’re almost naked if you don’t have your phone in your hand or at least in your pocket. Now, I’m not going to tell you to avoid using your phone all the time, I’m just going to invite you to avoid using it before you go to bed.
Let me ask you this. Do you ever find it hard to fall asleep? Maybe you even find it hard to wake up? The problem here may just be that you’re spending a little too much time on your phone before you go to bed. If you avoid using your cellphone an hour before you go bed, you’ll start to notice a shift in your sleep pattern. While having your phone by your bedside may feel comforting, if you leave it in another room, you may begin to feel more comfortable while you’re sleeping and when you wake up.
Another perk to putting your phone in another room before bed is for those people that press the snooze button a million times. By putting your phone in another room, it will force you get out of bed to turn off that darn alarm clock.
Avoid Processed Sugars Before Bed
While I’m gonna be the first one to say that dessert is probably the best thing ever created, I will also say that it’s not something to indulge in before you go to bed. I’m definitely that person that gets late-night cravings and I love midnight snacks. I’m the one that would eat cookies right before bed and then wake up feeling unrested and have no idea why. I’ve started making a habit to avoid eating sugar at least 2 hours before I go to bed and I’ve been feeling a worlds difference.
While it isn’t the best for our digestion to eat before you go to bed and best case scenario is to avoid eating completely 1-2 hours before bed, sometimes we can’t help but get hungry before we go to bed. I know how hard it can be to fall asleep when our stomach is rumbling. So, if these late-night cravings come up, rather than not eating, It can be helpful to just change up what you decide to reach for. For instance, rather than grabbing that bowl of ice cream, try for a bowl of fruit with a drizzle of honey. Rather than eating a handful of cookies, maybe grab a handful of nuts. I can guarantee you’ll start to notice a huge difference in your body and mind.
Voicememo Your thoughts
After a day of living in the world there can be a lot of thoughts running through your mind, especially when your laying in bed and trying to go to sleep. Our brains seem to never turn off. And while writing down these thoughts in a journal can be an extremely helpful practice to do before we go to bed, I’ve found It very beneficial and a lot easier to just speak out all these thoughts in a voice memo.
You may ask, “How do I Voicememo my thoughts?”
On your phone there is most likely a Voice Memo app that should already be downloaded on your phone. If it's not, you can download a free one in your app store. All you do is go to the app, press record, and start talking, about, well, anything.
You know when you have something going on in your life and you just need to vent to someone? Sometimes, you don’t necessarily need to share that with another person, you just need to speak it out loud, to anything. As someone that overthinks everything and will often turn to friends for support, the downside is that they may not always be there, or be awake when I need help. So, I’ll turn to my phone as a resource and record my thoughts.
The act of speaking out your thoughts is so beneficial, and the really powerful part of it is when you listen back to your recording. I know, it can be hard to hear your voice, it’s a strange feeling, yet, it can really be helpful. Hearing a recording of your thoughts is really insightful as you are able to notice how your thoughts flow.
While you’re listening to your recording start to notice your tone, cadence, and emotion behind the way you’re talking. Try doing this before you go to bed to get out all your thoughts so you can clear your head and rest easy.