Relaxing Night Routine

Hey Everyone! How are you all doing? Leave me a comment below and I’ll be sure to reply 😊

In today’s blog post I’m going to be talking (writing) you through my relaxing evening routine to help with sleep. Now this is working very well for me and I hope it can help at least one of you to hopefully get a better nights sleep.

For my MS fatigue I was given Amantadine and I found a couple of side effects quite disruptive. The first one was crazy weird dreams at night, not nightmares just very strange that would cause me to wake up a few times in the night. Another side effect was insomnia, where I couldn’t actually sleep. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to sleep for a couple of hours, consequently making the fatigue worse during the day.

My MS nurse told me that it will pass over a few days and my doctor gave me Amitriptyline to take at night to hopefully help me to sleep and calm my anxiety… However, since doing this routine I’ve not needed to take the amitriptyline AND I’ve been sleeping through the whole night 😊

1) When I can I put my phone away on silent and on charge at 7:30pm, I don’t look through Twitter, Instagram or messages after 7:30pm. I also put my iPad on charge at 7:30pm and try not to look at that either, I don’t watch YouTube videos after this time or anything stimulating. I’ve found this to really help me to wind down before going to bed because being off work at the moment I’m on my phone and iPad a reasonable about during the day and having a technology detox at night after 7:30pm really helps me to relax.

2) Sometimes I like to have a nice relaxing bath to help me wind down and relax. Now I don’t do this every night, mainly on the nights where I’ve felt particularly uptight, stressed or anxious or if I’m having a pamper night. Normally I do other things to help wind down but also to keep me entertained too. I do find that having a nice relaxing bath really does help me, I always have a nice cold glass of water to sip and this is when I do watch YouTube on my iPad (yes I know if said I put it in charge but I don’t do this every night) when I do watch YouTube at night then it’s relaxing, restful videos like night routines etc.

3) Herbal tea. I only try and have one cup of coffee a day and then I try and stay away from caffeine as much as possible and after 5:30pm I don’t have any caffeine at all and stick to water, decaf tea or herbal tea. My favourite herbal teas are: Lemon & Ginger, Peppermint and Camomile – I always make a cup of this every night and have it in bed.

4) Before I get changed into my pyjamas, brush my teeth,go to the toilet etc I like to do my exercises. These are the exercises that my physio gave me to do and some nice gentle yoga stretches. I find this a really nice way to relax the body and just loosen up before bed. I don’t bring my yoga mat upstairs purely because i don’t need it on the landing 😊

5) Once I’ve done my stretches I get changed into some nice cosy pyjamas, wash my face with my amazing Liz Earle cleanse and Polish with warm water, brush my teeth and then climb into bed 😊 this is when I’ll either write in my Bullet Journal, colour in an adult colouring book or on this occasion, paint my nails 😊 and whilst waiting for my nails to dry I just sip of my herbal tea of choice 😊

6) Once my nails have completely dried I then read my book of choice. At the moment I’m reading a book called “A cat called Alfie” it’s a lovely light hearted book and reminds me so much of my cat Arthur! (Any cat lovers out there, I’d recommend this!) I find that reading really helps me to relax in the evenings and during the day too if I want to read. I always make sure it’s a nice light hearted book and not a thriller or mind stimulating and I really do find that reading makes me sleepier, I always read one chapter a night (this book has fairly short chapters which I like!

7) Once the chapter is finshed and I’ve had my tea (I never manage to drink a full cup lol) I put my iPad on low light setting, low volume and out a film on that helps me to fall asleep. I’m one of those people who can’t go to sleep in silence, I don’t know about any of you guys, but I find that if I try to sleep in silence then my mind wanders and I end up not being able to sleep. So having a nice relaxing film on helps me to drift off, it’s been the best way for me 😊

And that is my relaxing night routine to help with sleep. I try and do this every night unless I’m away or out for the evening, but I find it has really made a difference with my sleep pattern and I feel a bit more refreshed when I wake up in the morning.

I normally fall asleep around 9pm and wake up at around 5:30am, sometimes I wish I could sleep for longer but I think this is my body clock at the moment which is fine cause I’m still getting 8.5 hours of un-disturbed sleep.

I really hope you’ve found this post useful and I really hope I helps just one of you 😊 the main thing I think that has helped me is not using my phone or iPad after a certain time in the evening.

Thank you for reading

Lots of Love

Hannah xx