Struggling to get a good night’s sleep? You’re not alone. Statistics show that one in three adults don’t get the right amount of high-quality, uninterrupted sleep each night, which can have detrimental effects on a person’s overall health.

What can you do about this? Plenty. Instead of tossing and turning in your bed until you eventually manage to drift off at some point in the early hours of the morning, here are some of Vivo Per Lei’s tried-and-tested self care rituals to follow to guarantee a restful slumber.

Why Are Bedtime Self Care Rituals So Important?

Self care is all about looking after your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Sleep plays a huge role in that. If you’re not getting enough sleep, then not only will your physical health suffer, but you’ll also notice a decline in your mental and emotional state.

So, while it’s important to keep self care in mind throughout the day, practicing a few self care rituals each evening could be exactly what you need to promote a good night’s sleep. You’ll feel calmer, more relaxed, and less stressed each night before bed. This will help you to sleep better, which will then lead to an increase in productivity, motivation, and energy the following day.

Of course, effective self care rituals vary between individuals. What works for one person may not help the next, making it important to find a few methods that suit both your personality as well as your lifestyle. Here are a few ideas to inspire you:

Soak Your Troubles Away

Did you know that taking a warm bath roughly 90 minutes before going to bed has been proven to help people fall asleep easier?

It all comes down to how a bath helps to lower the body’s core temperature. This sends a signal to your brain, telling it that it’s time for bed. Once you head to bed an hour or so later, you should find it much easier to fall asleep.

Showers can help with this to an extent as well. However, due to how a bath involves fully submerging your body into water, it’s much more effective than a shower at lowering your core temperature. Plus, since you lie down in a bath, as opposed to standing up in a shower, this encourages even more relaxation.

What makes a bedtime bath one of the best evening self care rituals out there is how it can be customized to further promote calmness and well-being. Add in bath products that are designed to leave your body feeling refreshed and relaxed and you’ll experience even greater benefits.

The Fresh Body Set from Vivo Per Lei is perfect for this. It contains a shower gel infused with hemp and spirulina to leave the body feeling soothed and touchably soft. It also comes with a fluffy luffa to help you lather up, along with a body cream to pamper your skin once you step out of the bath. Use these products each evening and all of the stress and anxiety that you’ve experienced throughout the day should simply melt away.

Pamper Yourself With a Nighttime Skincare Routine

Skincare is a big part of self care, making an indulgent skincare routine one of the best self care rituals to follow before bed. Not only will taking care of your skin help to calm your mind and lower anxiety levels, but you’ll also be able to wake up with a glowing complexion that’ll give you some extra confidence for the day ahead.

What should your bedtime skincare routine consist of?

Always begin with a hydrating cleanser, such as the Vivo Per Lei Hyaluronic Acid Daily Facial Wash. Then, follow up with a serum or two. Our Men’s Black Caviar Serum Capsules are a big hit with both genders because of how they’re infused with real caviar extract, which is loaded with skin-loving antioxidants.

Then, finish off with a moisturizer, such as the Vivo Per Lei Marine Ultimate All Skin Cream. This ultra-hydrating formula will leave your skin feeling silky smooth and deeply soothed, making it perfect for evening use.

If you’d like to elevate your bedtime skincare routine even further, consider adding in an exfoliant or face mask. Although these shouldn’t be used on a daily basis, they’re great for giving your routine a boost once or twice a week. Our Magnetic Deep Hydration Mask is particularly beneficial in the evenings. It will give your skin cells the moisture that they need to feel their best overnight, ensuring that you wake up looking radiant.

Sip on a Caffeine-Free Herbal Tea

If your bedtime beverage of choice contains caffeine, it’s time to make a change. Sure, diehard habits can be hard to break, but there is so much research out there confirming how detrimental caffeine can be to sleep quality. Not only will it keep you awake for longer, but it will also reduce the number of hours you sleep for. This means that you’ll wake up feeling tired rather than refreshed.

Instead, swap your regular tea or coffee for a caffeine-free herbal tea. Certain herbs are known for enhancing sleep quality, so those are the teas that you want to be sipping on. 

Take magnolia tea, for example. In traditional medicine, it has long since been used as a sleep aid due to how it contains certain compounds that have been proven to act as sedatives. Chamomile and lavender are two other ingredients that have similar effects, as do valerian and passionflower. 

Find a Good Book to Read

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that reading is a fantastic stress reliever. In fact, one study found that even a short reading session is capable of reducing stress levels by up to 68%, making this one of the self care rituals that you definitely need to try if you often feel anxious at night.

If you aren’t a regular reader, then it may take a while to settle into this habit. Start by picking a book or a magazine that catches your interest. Ideally, it should be something relatively relaxing. While thrillers and horrors may get your heart racing, they’re not ideal for calming your mind before bed. The same applies to reading the news if this often makes you angry or upset.

Then, spend about 20 minutes or so reading each night before bed. This should be enough to get you drowsy without stimulating your mind too much. As a result, you’ll fall asleep in no time.

Create a Soothing Environment

Spending time in a soothing and relaxing environment each night will help your body and your brain to unwind. On the other end of the spectrum, staring at piles of dirty laundry or cluttered counters will have the opposite effect.

So, when it comes to bedtime self care rituals, try to focus on creating a calming haven in your bedroom each night. Install some blackout curtains and pair this with dimmed lighting to signal to your brain that it’s time for bed. Candles can help with this too. Go for scented types and you’ll also be able to benefit from the sleep-inducing effects of aromatherapy.

The temperature of your bedroom is important as well. People sleep best in temperatures between 62 and 75 degrees, so remember to turn your thermostat down each evening.

Finally, make sure that your bed is also as comfortable as possible. If you tend to feel cold at night, go for cozy fabrics. On the other hand, if you often wake up feeling hot, pick bedding made from cooling materials, such as bamboo or silk. This will help to prevent you from overheating while you snooze, which will improve your sleep quality.

Establish a Realistic Evening Schedule

Once you’ve found a few self care rituals that work well for you in the evenings, it’s important to be consistent with them. Your daily habits help to set your internal body clock. This means that going to bed at the same time each night, even on weekends, will have you falling asleep much faster than if you were to hit the sack at very different times each evening.

Of course, it’s important to keep your schedule realistic. Don’t commit to drinking a cup of herbal tea each evening if you know that you hate tea. This won’t do much to calm your mind! Pick self care rituals that you’re confident about easily integrating into your routine each and every night. This way, consistently following them will be a breeze.

Give Yoga or Meditation a Try

Stretching your muscles is a great way to eliminate tension and stress before bed. This not only applies to your body but also to your mind. With that said, you don’t want to start doing a high-energy workout late in the evening. This will only increase the cortisol in your body, which will prevent you from dropping off into a peaceful slumber.

Instead, low-impact exercises are what you need, which is where yoga comes in. In fact, there are plenty of yoga exercises out there that are designed specifically to promote relaxation. From the crocodile pose to the legs-up-the-wall pose, these gentle exercises are perfect for adding to your list of bedtime self care rituals.

If moving around isn’t something that relaxes you, then turn to meditation instead. It will help you to practice mindfulness, which is so important when it comes to self care. If you’re not sure how to get started, there are plenty of meditation apps, videos, and podcasts out there that can guide you. Start off with just a few minutes of meditation each night before slowly building on this.

Summary

It’s tempting to turn to medication when you need some help falling asleep each night. However, while this may provide a temporary fix, it isn’t going to be very beneficial in the long run. Instead, you need to address the root cause of your lack of sleep, which is exactly what these self care rituals will help with. Whether due to stress and anxiety or the inability to unwind properly after a busy day, give some of these ideas a try to dramatically enhance the quality of your sleep each night.

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