Building a Better Bedtime Routine

Last Thursday morning I was sitting in my office bright and early at 7am, tired, groggy, and in a fog.  I spent the first 30 minutes attempting to wake up, walking around the office, drinking a strong cup of coffee, and staring at my healthy breakfast thinking about how I should eat it, but how much better the doughnuts across the hall looked.   I may have watched one too many episodes of Mad Men on Netflix pushing my bedtime back a little too much, and now, when I needed to be productive and alert I was seriously paying for it.  I work in criminal justice so it's important that when I walk into the office in the morning I'm ready to go.  If a Judge asks you a question in court you need to be able to answer it on the spot. Turns out responding with "huh, what?!" is frowned upon, not that I'd know or anything....  Thursday night I vowed to get a goodnight sleep, I couldn't have a repeat of Thursday again it was just too ridiculous. 

Thursday night I took the time to unwind relax and get to bed at a reasonable hour and as a result Friday was amazing.  I was awake, alert, and productive, it was great.  I've decided that having a bedtime routine is totally underrated, making this my next 30 day challenge!

30 Day Challenge #4: Gettin Some Zzzzzz's
For the next 30 days Weekends or not I'll be following a bedtime routine and here's what it looks like it:

• Turn the technology off!  At least 30 minutes before bed.  I'm embarrassed to admit how hard this truly is for me.  I'll use my laptop, while watching TV, and sending texts from my phone.  Right now I might or might not be watching Family Guy and flipping through Instagram while writing this....yeah I know.  The good news is, we have one TV in our apartment and it's not in the bedroom.

• Drink up!  Tea that is.  Over the last couple of years I've learned that drinking tea at night will prevent me from eating something sweet or drinking wine (it also helps to just keep these out of the house all together).  Like I love a good cup of coffee in the morning, especially in the fall, I love a warm cup of tea in the evening.  I also love that there is a tea for everything, digestion, detox, sleep, calm, awake, etc... I personally love Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Teas, Peppermint, or Chamomile before bed.  Personally I just find the sensation of holding something warm and very soothing.  I drank a ton of tea when I was living in Ireland so I have a happy association with drinking tea anyway.  

• Quiet the mind with meditation.  When I can't fall asleep the reason is usually that my mind is racing and I just can't turn it off.  I've been wanting to give meditation a try for while now but I keep coming up with reasons not to do it, the biggest one is I think I'll look and feel silly, although no one is watching.  I like to play Just Dance on the Wii and I'm pretty sure I look much sillier doing that.  I've been using a guided meditation from YouTube to help me do this.  I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to have to put in the time and practice if I want to better at meditation, but for me, the benefits of being able to meditate totally outweigh the frustrations of learning how to do it.

I know that changing my evening pattern will lead to a sounder sleep, which will lead to a better morning, which will lead to a more productive day!