The Benefits of Evening Routines ...

It shouldn’t be surprising that since we love morning routines so much that we love a good evening routine, too. Figuring out how you best unwind to set yourself for a great night of rest should be at the top of your to-do list.

Just like with morning routines, evening ones should be simple and mindless to complete. It should have that sense of relaxation and be something you look forward to at the end of each day. One thing we really wanted to do more this year was read more consistently (each day vs binge-read a few days a month), and so we included that in our evening routine!

In a nutshell, this is what our evening routine is looking like:

8pm TV/laptop off

8:15pm Take the dog for a walk

8:50pm Turn on the heater blanket (it’s winter and it’s freaking cold outside!), brush teeth, wash face, inject overnight insulin

9pm Get into bed, make sure alarms are on, the reading light is on and the overhead light is off. The phone is on DND. Read.

10/10:15pm Turn on sleep music and go to bed.

We’re doing all we want to unwind from the day and not overstimulate our brains at this time of the night. For us, we used to (and still sometimes do, but not regularly!) have to work late, which means staring at a screen for 10+ hours a day. Not only does that produce a wicked headache, but it also makes for an awful night of rest. We’re prioritizing ourselves now in that we KNOW we need that quality sleep and we know how to get it, so we are protecting it at all costs.

There are for sure some nights when we don’t feel like reading for that long, or we want to watch tv for a bit to zone out. We aren’t going to beat ourselves up for it and will just shorten our reading time by a half-hour and adjust accordingly, but we still try to go to sleep around the same time.

There’s always going to be distractions calling for you or “just one more episode…”, but how important is your sleep to you? How important is your sleep to your productivity and your goals?

Probably more important than you’re giving it credit for.