Early Bedtime Lover
Do you want to feel like your most beautiful self? Prioritize sleep. Get ready to unlock the best sleep of your life.
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Being ‘asleep’ and resting is viewed differently depending on where you are. In Latin American culture, sleep is cherished. From having cultural siestas where the towns and regions collectively rest in the late afternoon to Native American cultures who make a ritual out of bedtime stories and ensure the mind is at ease before succumbing to unconsciousness. One aspect that remains true regardless of location is having a dependable sleep routine, which is essential for robust wellness. Human beings operate best when they are well-rested and nourished. While eating a balanced diet and exercising daily is imperative for overall health, ensuring your body has a minimum of eight hours does make a significant difference in your well-being, physically and mentally.
There are many ways to ensure your body receives the correct amount of sleep, from introducing an earlier bedtime, no screens, and natural remedies. An organic way to incorporate this is by softly launching it into your routine and not making a complete switch that will inevitably confuse your body.
A simple way to ease your body into ‘sleep mode’ would be brewing tea, ideally chamomile, due to its healing properties and floral notes. The floral notes will allow your body to relax and ease any tension and anxiety naturally felt throughout the day. Additionally, the herbs in chamomile tea packets will soothe your stomach, permitting sound sleep. Another critical aspect of your night routine that will aid your quest for longer sleep is eating your last meal two hours before bed. This allows your body to properly break down the nutrients and allocate them to where they are signaled.
Committing to an early bedtime also means not being on your phone all night. While doom scrolling on TikTok, curled up under the blankets is fun, it is ruining your sleep. Our phones have a blue light embedded in the screens. While there is a setting that can ‘combat’ this feature, it still affects your sleep. Create a habit of setting your phone aside an hour before sleeping. This can be a great time to journal, stretch, or reflect on your day.
Looking through a pop culture lens, the effortlessly stylish and beautiful actress Dakota Johnson loves her sleep. Johnson has made it clear in no uncertain terms that she needs at least 10 hours to be a functional human being, as she told The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, while being a guest on Jimmy Fallon, she explained that sleep is her number one priority and said, “I don’t have to take anything to sleep like that either. I can just sleep like that.”
Johnson has made this point in multiple interviews; while her tone is usually playful, she still ensures that she is being serious. She explains that sleep benefits are essential and her body simply needs ‘a lot of sleep’ and that there is no reason she would withhold such a natural request.
Breaking down the specifics when your body does not gain enough sleep it will affect you. During sleep, your body is repairing itself. Your brain processes the information you learned throughout the day, ensuring you can maintain and create new memories, regulate hormone input and output, and help you maintain a healthy weight. When you do not receive enough sleep, these functions do not work as well and can cause adverse long-term effects such as anxiety and depression. It is important to remember that, on the outside, our bodies are slightly comatose, but the inside works rapidly and sends critical signals internally while our conscious minds rest.
Learning a new routine and becoming an early bedtime lover may be an adjustment, but prioritizing it and making it will allow you to glow from the inside! Sleep is just as important as food and water. Seriously, ditch the night owl tendencies and say hello to 10+ hours of sleep!
