The Nighttime Routine Every Woman Should Be Following

If we asked you the question “How do you function best?”, we could probably guess your answer before you’d opened your mouth. “When I’ve had a restful night,” you’d say. “When I’ve had enough sleep, and I’m not tired,” you’d say.
Sleep is so important to us. It is the thing that revitalizes our bodies in their entirety after every day. It fixes aches and pains, spots and sores, bad mood and negative outlooks. And it is for these reasons we should be doing all we can to ensure a good night’s sleep.
But it is important to remember that good sleep doesn’t begin with the moment your head hits the pillow. Instead, it begins once you start your nighttime routine. This routine should be honed to become as streamlined and effective as possible. So how can you make this happen? 

How can you make a nighttime routine to smoothly transition you into that great night’s sleep you both want and need? 

Read on for some suggestions...

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Do A Benjamin Franklin
The American revolutionary, diplomat, and inventor Benjamin Franklin asked himself one question every night. What good have I done this day?’. Start doing the same. Go through different categories in your head. What good did you do at work? Whether you helped deliver a baby or just helped someone fix the printer, it all counts! And what about in your home life?
If you are a mother, take it one step further? How did you help your child grow today as a person? What lessons in kindness did you teach them? Then, ask yourself what you could do more of and what you should do tomorrow. Similarly, if you’re an entrepreneur or businesswoman, take some time to evaluate your day in that light. Look at the smaller things, like a project that is going well, or a presentation that fell a little flat. Ask yourself what lessons you learned. Then, look at the bigger picture. How is your career developing?
You could do this at a set time each night. We brush our teeth for two minutes per night, for example. Take this time to look in the mirror while brushing and answer the question; ‘What good have I done this day?’ ​

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Cleanse Your Skin Effectively
Whether you’ve worn seventeen different products on your face that day, or none at all, it is so important to effectively cleanse your skin. It is not a vanity thing; it is an investment in your future. Keeping skin clean and well-looked after in your youth means it will be healthier and more supple in the future. First of all, ditch the cleansing wipes. No matter how fancy they are, they just can’t do the same job as a good quality cleanser and fresh water. Start following this routine. Remove stubborn products, like mascara and lipstick, using a waterproof makeup cleanser on a soft cotton pad. Then cleanse with warm water, and wipe toner over your face, using a soft cotton pad again. Finally, ditch the moisturizer in favor of a retinol serum. Rather than just staying on the surface like moisturizer does, these serums actually go deep. This means that they make a difference you can see and feel immediately.

​Input Data Into Your Period Tracker
Unless you are one of the very few women in the world who has a regular, steady cycle, this should absolutely be a part of your nightly routine. Period trackers don’t just allow you to see when your next cycle is due. They also allow you to input your mood, breakouts, flow and other things in them. This gives you the ability to track these things too, and predict future occurrence. It could be that you discover you are always in a bad mood around the 12th and the 13th of each month. Once you know this, it becomes less of a surprise, and you can start to make plans to allow it to run its course without aggravation. ​

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Prepare For The Next Day
Stress and worry are one of the main reasons that we struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Worrying about the next day is pretty commonplace, so remove this from the equation entirely by getting prepared. Decide what you are going to wear, and find all the pieces you’ll need. Figure out what you’ll want to take in your bag, pack it and put it by the front door. Set your alarm, take any tablets and turn your phone to silent. By preparing these things in advance, you can fall asleep knowing that when you wake up you can get on with the new day seamlessly.

Familiarize Yourself With Sleep Hygiene
You’ve heard about not keeping your mobile phone under your pillow, and making your room nice and dark. But did you know that all these things together, plus a handful more, fall under an umbrella term that is becoming more popular?. That term is ‘sleep hygiene’. Here are some of the basics. Set your body clock and then stick to it. If this means that you still have to get up at 7 am on the weekends too, then so be it. After a time, it will become natural. If you do it for long enough, you will likely be able to rise without need for an annoying alarm clock. Also, keep your bedroom for the things it is supposed to be for. This means that working, exercising, using your laptop or watching movies should be done in another room. When it comes to making the room suitable for sleep, think ‘dark,’ ‘quiet,’ and ‘cool’. These are the three key things that will help you get a restful night’s sleep. The National Sleep Foundation has more tips and guidance, but for darkness, invest in blackout blind. For a quiet room, consider double or triple glazing, or earplugs on a budget. And for a cool temperature, be sure that the room temperature is correct and that your mattress and pillows allow air to flow freely in them. 

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by Iconic Chica Contributors