How to Relieve Stress At Bedtime

Bedtime is the favorite time of day for almost everyone, and the saddest thing is when you find that even after a long, exhausting day at work or school, you can’t relax enough to fall asleep. Things start making less sense, and the world isn’t as good of a place as it seemed to be when you’re not sleeping enough.

If you relate to anything in the last paragraph, you probably have no clue how to sleep better and want to know more. Well, it’s not rocket science, but you’ll need to invest a little more time and attention into your bedtime routine to make sure you have the best sleep you possibly can, given everything.

Keep reading to find out ways to relieve stress at bedtime.

Make Sure Your Environment is Good for Sleep

It won’t help you to have an awful sleep environment when you’re already struggling to fall asleep. All the noise and light are only going to get in the way of a good night’s rest. Your environment needs to be helping you fall asleep, not keeping you awake.

When you sleep, make sure you turn off all the lights and that your room is dark and cool. Using a weighted blanket in the winter can be really helpful too, and so can some relaxing music or white noise before bed – but turn it off when you’re going to sleep.

Make sure you have some water on your bedside table on the warmer nights, so you don’t have to go all the way to the kitchen during the night. But be sure to not drink too much before bed – that will only cause you to need to go to the bathroom shortly after you’re asleep.

Take a Warm Bath

Warm baths are known for how they help people relax and bring your body to the ideal temperature for sleeping. This should be an essential part of your nighttime routine, especially if you spend long hours outdoors in colder climates.

You can go the extra mile and add a relaxing skincare routine to your ritual, or even add some essential oils to your warm bath. Soak in it until you feel calm and clean, and then you can make your way to bed and to blissful sleep.

Avoid Alcohol and Caffeine

Both these things are great during the day, but if you need to sleep in a couple of hours, it’s best to avoid them.

Alcohol can influence how your body handles stress, in most cases making the effects of stress on your body worse. This is ironic because these are the very things people try to use alcohol to escape.

On the other hand, caffeine makes it harder for you to fall asleep, and too much of it can even make you feel jittery and anxious.

None of these things are really good for when you need to sleep.

Factor in “Worry Time”

If you have a nasty case of overthinking, make sure you factor in that time when you’re calculating how long you’ll sleep that night.
For example, if it takes you about an hour to fall asleep, go to bed an hour earlier. It’s even better if you set some time aside to worry and overthink a few hours before bed, and then you cast all that worry aside when you hit the hay.

Avoid Using Electronics Before Bed

Mobile phones and laptops are pretty addicting but almost always bad news, and this statement stands true even when it comes to falling asleep at night. They can influence your circadian rhythms – the body’s natural clock that tells you it’s time to go to bed – and make it harder for you to fall asleep. This natural rhythm is part of why you need it to be dark to fall asleep quickly.

A lot of people even start scrolling through social media mindlessly when they’re stressed, which leads them down a rabbit hole of endless scrolling when they should be trying to fall asleep.

De-Stress the Normal Way

You don’t have to take your stress to bed and battle with it every day. If you have the time, you can try to deal with it in many ways. One of the best things is to talk to a friend or a loved one about what’s bothering you. Tell your partner or best friend about all your worries, or even go out with them during the day and have some fun.

Doing things that can put you in a good mood and talking about your worries out loud are all great ways to handle stress and will help you fall asleep easier at night.