ANATOMY OF A PERFECT NIGHT ROUTINE

 

If you are anything like me, you have fine tuned your morning toutine to get your day started on the right foot. But while we often focus on morning routines, our days are highly dependent on our sleep, and our sleep is largely influenced by our bedtime routines. Lets help you create an effective night routine.

If a morning routine helps you get out of bed and lay the foundations to having an effective  day, then pre bed routine is the opposite. An effective night time routine should foccus on three main principles:

1. Set up for a successful tommorow 

2. Activate the parasympathetic nervous system

3. Optimize for sleep

Perhaps the most frequently overlooked factor to an effective night routine is knowing when to initiate it. Morning routine are easy, you just start them as soon as you wake up, but initiating  an evening routine is more challenging.

We too often are distracted by our gadgets, a new show on Netflix, or chatting with our friends and family. Sometimes the most impactful changes are the simplest, and that holds true here. 

A huge part of sleeping better comes down to waking up and falling asleep at consistent times. By practicing this, I have noticed I can more easilly fall asleep, and I can even wake up at my intended time without an alarm clock. This is a more natural way to approach sleep, and yo will feel far more refreshed for the remainder of your day.

So when should you initiate the night routine?

If you are watching this video, you probably need between 7-9 hours of sleep. Figure out when you need to wake up and work backwards from there. My recommendation is you start your routine earlier than you think necessary, as there are sometimes unforeseen delays that come up. 

I personally give myself 1hour from start until intended bedtime. Create a system that will consistently remind you, as relying on your own willpower will likely fall apart.

I have set up my philips Hue smart lights to turn red in my living room and bedroom at  9pm every night. This is my signal, and red light is also much more freindly to your night vision.

You may also choose to set a recurring phone alarm instead. Now that we have initiated the routine, first start with your bathroom necessities. Brush your teeth, wash your face, shower, and do whatever else you need to in the washroom. Do this now at the beginning of your routine otherwise you will startle yourself awake if you wash your face with cold water right before crawling into bed.

Next, set yourself up for a successful day tommorow. I approach this in two ways: 

First ,reflecting with journaling. I created a custom journaling template for my evenings which prompts me with three amazing things that happened today, three lessons learned, and what would have made today better. If there are other thoughts bouncing around, I will make it a point to journal a bit further, beyond my templated prompts. 

This is important otherwise my new business ideas or vacation plans will continue to occupy my mind and it is more difficult to fall asleep. Putting down the ideas on paper helps to trap them to free my mind.

This also plays into a concept pushed by Josh Waitzkin, chess prodigy and expert on learning. He recommends journaling at the end of each day on the singular most important question for the day, and posing it to your unconscious before you sleep. That way your unconscious mind can mull it over, and you will likely have a fresh take to brainstorm on it in the morning.

Second, ask yourself if there is anything you need to do nw to make tommorow easier for furure you. If im getting on a flight inthe morning, I will make notes on a post it and put it on the bathroom mirror to remind myself to pack my toothbrush and retainers, since those are things I cannot pack until the morning anyway, and I dont  want to forget.

If I have a chaotic day tommorow i will write the one thing I want to get done, despite being pulled in multiple directions. If I have an early morning for filming a day in the life, I wil make sure I have my bag packed and batteries charged. Or if it was an early morning for surgery rotation, I will make sure my ID, pager, and scrubs are laid out for easy access so I dont have to hunt for them in the morning.

The sympathetic nervous system is your fight, flight and freight system, dealing with higher acuity situations. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand is the rest and digest system, dealing with more restorative functions.

For optimal sleep, we want to activate the parasympathetic nervous system leading up to bedtime. There are a few ways to do this.

First, lower your body temperature. Set your AC to a cooler level, or  use a chilipad, or reduce clothing while in bed. I live in hot climate, so I set my AC to 72F and sleep in my underwear with a light blanket. I could get similar effects by setting the room a bit cooler and sleeping with a shirt and pajamas.

Avoid things that stimulates you, like backlit screens, high intensity and loud music or oher things that your grandpa woudnt approve of at late hours. Ideally you should not be using backit screens during this time, but if you must, turn down the brightness all the way  and try wearing blue light blocking glasses.

And no night shift helps but it is not good enough on its own. This is important as blue light stimulates photoreceptors inyour eye that supress melatonin release from your pineal gland which is an imimportant hormne in the onset of sleep.

At this time some like to relax further by stretching or doing light foam rolling. Others practice deep breathing or meditation. I go with reading. I wil tell google  assistant to kill the lights, then grab my kindle, again using it at a very dim setting, and read something that will help me relax.

This is often fiction or a biography or something related to personal interests, currently  How to build a car by Adrian Newey which as all about his 35 year career in Formula

On the other hand if I read an intellectual business book, it is more likely to keep me up thinking. Once I feel tired,  the kindle goes on the nightstand and Im off to sleep. 

One last point  if you are living by yourself you only need to worry about your own preferences. But if you have roommates or family living with you, or a significant other that shares the bed with you, then consider how your routine may influence them, and vice versa. Seek to find a system that works for everyone.

For example if you are significant other sleeps before you consider doing your night routine activities that may distrupt them before they go to sleep. Or if your family stays up later than you let them know you are going to bed so they know to keep noise levels down,and do the same for them.