Sleep: Why nighttime routines are so important + 6 things to help you start your routine

 Lifestyle 

Hello lovely readers! 

In this post, we will be talking about sleep. Why it matters, how to help your sleep with routines, and the 6 things to start your sleep routine. 

Sleep is so important for your health, immune system, mood, and more. Sleep is something that should be protected and promoted. 

Sleep also helps your mentality and mood, helping you have a clearer mind, energy, and a positive mindset. This helps you have the ability to go after your goals and dreams and make them come true! 

Let’s begin with talking about the importance of sleep and then we will move on to 6 ways to help you start a nighttime routine. 

The Importance of Sleep 

When you sleep well you will feel energized, awake, happy, have a clear head, and ready to take on the day. This is super important for all areas of your life. Doing business, school, writing, following your dreams, life, all of these require sleep to have the best possible outcome. To do this you need to have good sleep and with that a good sleep routine. 

Sleep has so many incredible benefits. Did you know sleep can help with your immune system, healing, energy, memory, mood, and more? It is truly incredible and is something we should prioritize. 

Everyone is different, likewise, everyone’s sleep is different. Some people need more or less sleep. A good time to shoot is about 8 hours. Though this is subject to change. It's not a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. Still, sleep is very important and should be something you prioritize. 

For a long time, I struggled with sleep. There would be many nights when I just could not sleep. I would be up for hours sometimes waiting to fall asleep. It wasn’t until I started really working and focusing on sleep and a nighttime routine that things began to change. Below I am going to show you parts of my nighttime routine that changed all that and helped me sleep. This is by using different triggers for you mind to get you into the right mental space for sleep.

Let’s dive into my 6 helpful ideas for a rocking sleep routine!

6 Things to Help to Start YOUR Sleep Routine 

1. Make Tea (do something for yourself) 

Make + drink warm tea. Simple, right? I love having tea in the evenings sometime before bedtime. It is calming to me and something I love to have! 

It puts me in the “nighttime” mindset, triggering it’s time to calm down and relax.  

My go-to teas are vanilla chai tea, soothing caramel, lavender chamomile, Spiced Turmeric Herbal Tea (Young Living), and peach tea as my summer highlight. Find whatever tea works best for you. 

An alternative to tea is Calm Drink. It does what is says. It helps your body calm down and relax naturally.

Having a drink at night like tea helps to build a routine, a habit, that helps calm you. I highly recommend starting your nighttime routine with bedtime tea. 

2. Dim The Lights (create a calming space) 

Tip two, dim the lights. In dimming the lights you are creating a warm calm space to relax in. Dimming the lights also helps your eyes have an easier transition from light to dark. 

In my home, at night, I always dim the lights near bedtime. It makes a calming space to trigger your mind when it is nearing bedtime. 

This is a perfect addition to your nighttime routine. 

3. Diffuse Essential Oils (create scent triggers) 

Essential oils have such wonderful benefits it's only fitting to use them at bedtime to help you with sleep. 

I love essential oils and what they can do for me. I only recommend using Young Living because of their quality, the promise of Seed to Seal, and knowing they only make pure oils from the source. I wouldn’t trust other oil companies under the guideline that only a small percentage of pure oil has to be in the bottle to be considered 100% when really it is not. Young Living I know to be trustworthy, so I would say if you are wanting to use oils, use Young Living. 

Creating sent triggers can help you with going to sleep. When you consistently use oils, you get used to the smell, the feeling when you put it on, and it creates a sent memory or trigger that tells your mind it is time for bed. 

One way to get the essential oil scent trigger that can help build a calming habit (routine) is to diffuse the oils.* 

Some of my favorite nighttime diffuser blends: Lavender+Cedarwood; Orange+Cedarwood; Thieves; Lemon+Lavender; and Eucalyptus. 

Up next is another way to use essential oils in your nighttime routine. 

*If you were wondering what the above diffuser is, it is the ARIA DIFFUSER from Young Living. It is so beautiful with the glass top and wood bottom, and works amazing! 

4. Drop On Oils (start an oil routine) 

Number four is Drop On Oils (aka starting an oil routine). In the previous tip, I shared some of why essential oils are so good (only from Young Living) and how to create a scent trigger by using a diffuser. 

In this tip, we are using oils topically and starting a nighttime oil routine. 

I have a great testimony with essential oils and my sleep. I used to have a lot of problems falling asleep. I would end up just staying awake sometimes for hours before I could sleep and even then I didn’t feel very rested. 

My mom actually had me use an essential oil ‘sleep program’ where I would consistently use four oils every night for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, I was sleeping better, feeling more rested, energized for the day, and could fall asleep faster than I had in years. 

The oils I used on the ‘sleep program’ are Young Living's: FREEDOM™, AROMASLEEP™, VALOR®, & INNER HARMONY™. 

I used these oils constantly for 30 days and I could definitely feel a positive change in my sleep afterward. 

Another oil I would recommend using at night is LAVENDER. 

For more information feel free to contact me by commenting below in the comments or by checking My Profile to contact me through email. 

5. Do Something Calming 

My fifth routine help is to do something calming for yourself. This includes anything that makes you relax and calms you down. 

Some of my recommendations are to: 

• read a book 

• draw or do art 

• write in a journal 

• listen to music 

These are all helpful calming things to me. Whatever helps calm you I would recommend doing. Something that you love and brings you peace. This leads me to my last and final thought. 

6. Pray 

My final thought is to pray. 

Prayer is a powerful thing. Ask God for rest, for sleep, for peace to calm your heart. God is a generous father who loves his children (YOU). He wants to help you. Ask Him for help and guidance and He will supply. 

This is not to say every prayer He will answer or answer right away. Sometimes it will take time and persistence. Other times He will say no. 

Remember how I said God is a father? This is my point. Think of a father who loves his child. The child wants candy and sweets everyday and begs his father to let him have candy. The father in loving his child tells the child no. The father says no because he loves his child and knows too much candy will hurt his child. The child can get sick, and the father wants to protect his child from getting sick. 

God is the same. He loves us and knows us. He knows what is good and bad for us and will lead us in the right direction. 

Want to know Him more? Spend time with Him. Read his Word, the Bible. Pray. Pray to Him, talk to Him. Build a relationship with Him. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to speak to you, help you, guide you. You just have to be still, listen to Him, be with Him, and He will speak. You may not hear his voice in a booming sound. But you can hear him in the silence. He will speak to you, nudge you in the right direction by giving you subtle feelings. Your conscience, the gut feeling you get is Him. That is what I think and feel. That is how he has guided me. 

FINAL NOTE: 

The point of this post is to tell you how important sleep is and how to help you cultivate a routine that promotes your sleep. 

I hope this post helped you in some way and that your sleep improves (if you need it to). 

Sleep helps in everything including the point of this blog, to help you have A HEALTHY MINDSET TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE! 

Are you ready to take care of yourself and make your dreams come true? 

If You liked this post be sure to check out: 

• Intro Lifestyle 

• Belief: Why It Matters To Make Your Dreams Come True  

• 3 Reasons You Need To Read The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe 

• Revising + Printing My Novel 

Question Time! 

I want to hear from you! What have you taken out of this post? What of the 6 tips will you be taking? What ones are you already doing? What does your night routine look like? 

Lastly, are you ready to take care of yourself and make your dreams come true?  I would love to chat! 

Tune in NEXT WEEK for a post on Belief and why it matters to know what God says about you. Believe and trust in him, and you can believe in yourself and your abilities, knowing God is with you. This helps your mentality and outlook on life which goes into helping make your dreams come true! 

Take care of yourself, 

Moriyah 💛