Why do I say a bedtime routine makes you sleep & dream? If you establish a bedtime routine and carry it out faithfully, your brain and body will recognise the regular timetable as priming you to enter the sleep phase. This fixed sequence of acts leads to lying down in bed to sleep.
Common habits to cultivate are drinking warm milk before the last brushing of teeth before bed. A filled stomach helps to lull the senses into complacency and eventually, sleep. Other accompanying habits are reading and cognitive behavior therapy of telling yourself to fall asleep.
Now that we’ve discussed what is good for inducing sleep, let’s move on to Sleep’s nemesis. Or The Bedtime Routine Nemesis.
Excitement raises the level of adrenalin in your body and makes you alert. Logically, we avoid sensory inputs that excite our nervous system from early evenings onwards. We need to self censor visual, audio and emotional stimulation in books, TV, and video games.
Our consumption via eating, drinking and smelling should not include caffeine and aromatic oils that stimulate nerves and keep you awake. This is not a no-brainer as some people are still unaware that many foods and drinks contain caffeine.
What’s your bedtime routine? (Share those SFW only) If there are enough readers sharing their bedtime routines, we can vote to pick a favorite.
