6 Nighttime Routines for a Better Tomorrow

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It is known how important it is to start your day with a good routine to have lasting energy and motivation. But truth be told, your morning has everything to do with how you are spending the night before.

If you are eating sugary snacks, drinking caffeine and heading to bed late after watching hours of television, you are more likely to be grumpy and struggle the next morning and maybe the entire day. Getting a good night’s sleep and rejuvenating your energy for the next day all depends on how you are spending the night before.

Creating a simple nighttime routine is essential for the overall health of your body and mind. Even a few minutes focused on your next morning will ease any tension and nerves, helping you to feel more prepared and organized.

There are simple things to do each night to make for a more positive tomorrow.

Prepare Your Meals

Although eating healthy food should be a priority for ongoing energy, we tend to put this at the bottom of our to-do lists. Our mornings fly by and the next thing you know, we have to pick up breakfast at the drive-thru and are ordering takeout for lunch. Instead, it helps to prep food the night before so it is one less thing to worry about the next day. If possible, you can cook extra for dinner to have leftovers for lunch. For breakfast, try to set aside individual freezer bags with smoothie ingredients like pineapple, spinach and then add your choice of milk, nut butter and/or protein powder. At night, you can cook simple recipes such as roasted vegetables, grilled chicken, egg salad, quinoa or rice. You can incorporate healthy snacks like tortilla chips and guacamole, sliced vegetables and hummus and rice crackers and almond butter. If you have kids, try to pack your lunch when you make theirs. Keep it as simple as possible and do one grocery shopping per week to stay stocked up on your essentials. It may take a little while to get into the routine, but you will notice a difference in your energy the next day when you are eating balanced homemade meals rather than sugary and fried fast food.

Choose Your Clothes

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For many of us who don’t have uniforms to wear to work, we can spend an average of 16 minutes every morning deciding what to wear. The average women will spend 287 days of her entire life choosing outfits for work, the gym, special events and vacation! This tends to create a lot of stress when we are staring into our closets. We often get annoyed and frustrated trying to find certain items and also judging our bodies in the mirror. Instead, try to find time the night before to confirm the weather and select the entire outfit you will wear the next day. Even deciding on underwear, socks, shoes and accessories will save you valuable time and energy the next morning. It will give you a chance to choose something that makes you feel confident and comfortable. This way you won't have to waste time stressing the next morning.

Quiet Time

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Climbing into bed even 20 minutes earlier than you do now will help you to create a better routine when it comes to unwinding and sleeping. Turning off electronics and having this time for less sensory distractions and technology will allow your mind to start slowing down. You can breathe, listen to a guided sleep meditation, read and/or write in a journal. Having a book and journal set up next to your bed at all times will make it easy to do. You can journal about your day, what you are grateful for or do a brain-dump, writing down your thoughts and anxieties so you can fall asleep more quickly. Ending your night this way will have you feeling less frantic and tired once morning arrives.

Time to Sleep

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It is best to close your eyes and fall asleep at the same time every night. Doing so will allow your body and mind to work into a set schedule. You will then be conditioned to get sleepy around the same time so it makes it harder to stay up late. According to Northwestern University in Chicago, all living things have circadian rhythms which helps to synchronize bodily functions to the 24 hour pattern of the Earth’s rotation. As humans, our internal clock is regulated by our bodily senses like our eyes perceiving sunlight and darkness. We are meant to sleep according to the sunrise and sunset but technology and other advances have changed this important pattern. Creating the same routine every night is the best way to set a healthy habit that lasts. It also allows the heart to rejuvenate, leading to less health issues.