My Routine For A Good Night's Sleep

Getting a good night's sleep can seem virtually impossible at times, but it's so important for us if we want to look and feel our best. Since becoming ill earlier this year, I've found it even more vital to get a good night's rest as often as I can, so I've developed my own little routine that I follow in the evenings to make sure that I unwind before bedtime and give me the best chance possible of a good night's slumber. Although I'd love to say this is a routine I stick to every single night, but that's not possible, so I try to follow it as often as I can, especially if I've been feeling run down.



The first step is one I struggle with massively, and that's to switch off all technology around 1-1 1/2 hours before I plan to go to bed - for me this would be around 10pm. For someone who spends a lot of time on their phone, this proved very difficult to begin with, but it's important that your brain has time to switch off from all that activity before you attempt to try and sleep.

Once I've done that I'll head into the shower and make it extra relaxing by using oils. The Aromatherapy Associates Relax Deep Oil is a great one to use before bedtime just to make everything nice and calm.

After my shower, I crack on with my evening skincare routine, and then slip into bed and have a 15-30 minute read of my book. Reading is a great way of tiring out the brain and preparing it for sleep. Just make sure you know when to stop - it can be so easy to get carried away in a good book and stay up reading way past the time you intended, so set yourself a page limit and stop at that.

Occasionally when I'm reading my book, I'll drink a camomile tea and burn a scented candle, just to relax me a little more. I recently got an Aromatherapy Associates Relax Candle in one of my advent calenders and I've really enjoyed burning that. However, their candles are a little on the pricey side, so if you want a more budget friendly option, Tesco do a really nice Lavender & Jasmine candle for a fraction of the cost.

Once I've finished reading, it's lights out time. For me, a decent night's sleep is at least 8 hours, so I like to make sure I'm ready for bed 8 hours before I need to get up, and I definitely wouldn't recommend any fewer than 6 hours sleep. Before I switch my lights off, I like to rub some This Works Deep Sleep Stress Less Balm onto my pulse points and spray the Avon Sleep Therapy Pillow Mist, just to crate a nice relaxing atmosphere to help me get to sleep as quickly as possible. I think the This Works balm is a brilliant product which works really well if I found myself in a stressful situation, as well as before bedtime.

What do you like to do to get a good night's sleep?