It goes without saying that quality sleep is important for your overall health. But why exactly? Firstly, having a good night’s sleep just simply allows your body and mind to finally be able to restore the energy that was used in performing activities during the day. Having a good night’s sleep also comes with a lot of other benefits, such as boosting your immune system, improving your mood, increasing your productivity and attention, and so much more! 

Unfortunately, restful sleep isn’t always easy to achieve. If you’ve tried everything from counting sheep to scrolling through Facebook and it just doesn’t work, you might want to consider other alternatives. Some of these alternatives include separating your workspace from your bedroom. Most people start their sleeping journey before even getting into bed. This is what we call unwinding down. Unwinding down after a long and busy day allows your body and mind to relax and relieve any stress or tension that you might have experienced during the day. Listed down below are some of the best ways to unwind and get ready for sleep. 

1. What’s next?

Before ending your day, as much as it might be a bit stressful to hear this, planning for the day tomorrow will not only make it easier when you wake up but will also enable you to lessen some of the stress that you may be carrying before going to sleep. If you’re worrying about tomorrow, it’s going to be hard to get into bed, close your eyes, and drift into dreamland. Planning or simply making a brief list of the priority things you need to do for the next day assures yourself that you won’t have to stress as much when you wake up because you’ll already know what you have to do. It also lessens the worry of the potential fact you miss anything important the next day.

2. Detaching yourself from everything

Another way of unwinding down to get a good night’s sleep is by completely detaching yourself from anything and everything. Take a couple of minutes to just isolate yourself from everything to get your brain ready for bed. Taking a break from everything helps you bring balance between your digital and real-world life. A lot of our academics or work are found in our technologies, having a couple of minutes purely for yourself and being aware that your day is over helps in easing any tension, and anxiety before going to bed. Detaching yourself from everything also includes getting away from your family or friends for a couple of minutes. Spending time without your loved ones is needed just as much as needing to spend time with them. 

It also finally gives you time to be mindful and attentive to what your body or mind currently needs. Perhaps you have been so busy that you didn’t realise your body was craving food or was thirsty. Just like the sims, take a couple of minutes to cater to what your body needs before going to sleep 

3. Surround yourself with the scent you love

Surrounding yourself with the scent that allows you to feel peace and relaxation allows your brain, body, and mind, to slowly drift into a much more dozy state. Doing this makes it easier for you to get into bed, close your eyes, and fall asleep. You can do this by simply lighting a candle of your choice or spraying a bedding scent of one of your favourite scents. 

Being able to smell your favourite scent before going to bed creates an ambience that you feel safe and comfortable being in. Often than not, being asleep is one of the most vulnerable states that we could be, which is why some find it hard to let down their guard and go to sleep peacefully. By doing this, you are allowing your body to be placed in an environment where you feel safe in. 

4. Reduce your blue light exposure

One of the best things you could do before getting into bed and sleeping is to reduce your blue light exposure a couple of hours before you get into bed. Having strong blue light affects your circadian rhythm and tricks your brain into thinking that it’s still daytime even though it’s not. Because you think it’s still daytime, you may feel as if the day is still not over and you need to continue doing activities. This makes it harder for you to fall asleep as you are steadily keeping your brain activity high and making it hard for your body to feel that it’s nighttime and you need to go to sleep.

Separating yourself from the technologies that radiate blue light also allows you to soak up real-time instead of screen time. This allows you to interact more with those around you and bring yourself to a happy state of mind due to being able to talk to those you care about before ending your day. 

5. Drawing or stretching?

Instead of drawing, writing a story, or any of those sorts that a lot of us do before going to bed, it is best to instead do some meditation or just simply do some stretching. This is because doing activities such as drawing increases our brain activity and makes it harder for us to go to sleep as our minds are awake and carry energy that pushes us to think we need to do something else instead of sleeping. 

By relaxing your body and brain, it is easier to quiet down the distracting thoughts that keep you awake. Another benefit to doing stretching or meditation regularly before bed is that it trains your brain to know that this new habit equals sleep time, and it’s an easy way to send yourself mental and physical signals that the day is done. Meditation is also scientifically proven to reduce anxiety, ease depressive symptoms, and help the brain reduce distractions and improve cognition. 

6. Journalling your day

Another thing that you can do to unwind before sleeping is journaling your day. What happened during the day, your feelings, thoughts, and everything else. Journaling helps you slow down, calm down, and put any challenges you’re facing in perspective. Journaling before bed allows you to decrease distractions, any overthinking, and worries and helps you to fall asleep faster. Journal writing also allows you to reflect on your day and gives you time to think about solving any problem and what you can do to prevent it in the future. 

There are some of the few things that you can do to unwind before going to sleep that can help you reach the desired state of mind and enjoy the quality of sleep that you deserve and need.