When talking about how to build an effective daily schedule, morning routines usually get
all of the attention. Although having an effective morning routine is important, having an effective
night routine is just as, if not more, important. Here are five reasons why your night routine
is holding you back, and what you can do to fix it.
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
I recently did a video covering eight morning routine mistakes that are holding you back.
In this video, we’ll cover the flip side and talk about five common night routine mistakes
and how to build your own perfect night routine. Let’s get into it.
Mistake number one is not having a consistent nighttime routine. Every good day starts with
a good night’s sleep - so if you want to have an effective tomorrow, you need to start
preparing today.
Having a consistent night routine gives you the necessary time and space to decompress
after a long day. It helps you ease into sleep so that by the time your head hits the pillow,
your body and mind are ready for bed.
Think about wakefulness like driving a car. After you wake up, it takes some time to warm
up the engine and get to speed. But once you get up to speed, it’s pretty easy to keep
going. After a day of driving, the time eventually comes when you need to start slowing down.
You don’t want to redline the engine and slam on the brakes from 100 to 0. Doing so
is incredibly jarring, both for you and the car. Instead, you want to ease into it and
slow down gradually before finally coming to a stop.
An effective nighttime routine is similar. It gives you much-needed time to decompress
and lets you gradually relax into sleep - both physically and mentally. Without it, you’re
just slamming on the brakes and trying to force your body to sleep when it’s not ready
to.
Mistake number two is not optimizing your routine for sleep.
According to the CDC, more than a third of American adults do not get the recommended
seven to nine hours of sleep per day. This is a big problem if you’re trying to maximize
your productivity as research has shown that both acute and chronic sleep deprivation negatively
impact cognition.
In addition, inadequate sleep has also been shown to negatively impact mental health.
Although we often think of difficulty sleeping as a symptom of an underlying mood disorder,
research suggests that inadequate sleep can also be a causal factor contributing to the
development of mood disorders.
If that isn’t evidence enough, think about it this way: you can function without food
for several weeks and without water for several days, but you experience the most rapid decline
in function without sleep.
Despite millions of years of evolution, we still spend over ⅓ of our lives asleep.
If it wasn’t necessary, then evolution would have prioritized things like finding food,
finding a mate, or simply not being vulnerable to predation.
Just getting enough hours of sleep isn’t enough either if you really want to be at
the top of your game. A huge part of sleeping better also comes down to waking up and falling
asleep at consistent times.
In one study, researchers found a positive correlation between having a consistent sleep
cycle and increased academic performance. They concluded that even when you control
for the amount of sleep, participants who had a more consistent sleep schedule tended
to perform better.
To optimize your sleep schedule, start by deciding what time you want to wake up and
then work backwards seven to nine hours. This will tell you what time you need to be in
bed, falling asleep. After that, subtract one more hour and that will be the time that
you should start winding down and initiating your nighttime routine.
Knowing what time you need to initiate your nighttime routine at and when you need to
be asleep is only half the battle though. The other half is actually following through
with it - which is much easier said than done. This is something that I continue to struggle
with even to this day.
If there’s anything I’ve learned though, it’s that if you really want to adhere to
your nighttime routine and have a consistent sleep schedule, you can’t rely on sheer
willpower and awareness. You need to focus on building systems instead.
For instance, sometimes I get so caught up in what I’m working on at night that I completely
lose track of time. To combat this, I’ve invested in a smart light setup which I’ve
programmed to dim and turn red at 9:30 PM. This serves as a visual reminder to me that
I need to start wrapping up and winding down. Making this one adjustment has helped me to
adhere to my night routine and go to bed at a more consistent time.
That being said, you don’t need a fancy light set up that makes you feel like a sith
lord to remind you to go to bed, a simple alarm will work just as well.
Mistake number three is not activating your parasympathetic nervous system.
There are two major divisions of the autonomic nervous system - the sympathetic and the parasympathetic.
The sympathetic nervous system is often referred to as the “fight or flight” system. It
prepares the body for higher acuity situations. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the
other hand, is the “rest and digest” system. It returns our bodies to a calm, relaxed state
and prepares us for rest.
For optimal sleep, we want to activate the parasympathetic in the hour or so leading
up to bedtime and avoid activating the sympathetic.
The first step to achieving this is to lower your body temperature. The optimal bedroom
temperature for sleep is believed to be somewhere between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit; however,
you can accomplish the same effect in a few different ways. Setting your A/C to a cooler
level is one solution; however, you can also use a mattress cooler, such as the ChiliPAD
or Bedjet, or reduce clothing while in bed.
For example, I live in a hot climate so I set my A/C to 72°F and sleep in a pair of
shorts with a light blanket. This allows me to lower my body temperature, without having
a huge energy bill at the end of the month.
The next step to activating the parasympathetic nervous system is to avoid things that stimulate
you. This means no caffeine, no high-intensity music, no backlit screens, and especially
no smartphone right before bed.
Blue light, like the light from a phone screen, stimulates photoreceptors in your eyes which
suppress melatonin release from your pineal gland. Melatonin is a key hormone involved
in regulating our circadian rhythm and priming our bodies for sleep. When melatonin production
is inhibited, we don’t feel as tired, and it becomes more difficult to fall sleep.
Matthew Walker, professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley, explains that
using your phone at night can also result in sleep procrastination. You start by checking
your email or social media, and the next thing you know an hour has passed, and you’re
still wide awake.
The easiest way to avoid this is to not bring your phone into the bedroom. If this is not
possible, he recommends imposing a rule on yourself that you can only use your phone
while standing up. If you follow this rule, after a few minutes you’ll probably feel
the urge to lay down in bed at which point you will have to put the phone down.
The last thing to do to activate your parasympathetic nervous system is wind down and relax. Do
something that makes you feel comfortable. Something that eases your stress. For some,
this might be stretching or doing some light foam rolling. Others prefer to practice deep
breathing or meditation.
My activity of choice is to read a relaxing book on my Kindle. This is often fiction,
or a biography, or something related to my personal interests. I try to avoid reading
any kind of intellectually stimulating book because I’m not optimizing for learning
in the last few minutes of the day, but rather easing into restorative sleep.
Mistake number four is not setting yourself up for a successful tomorrow.
One of the qualities of an effective nighttime routine is that it prepares you for the next
day. Take some time to reset your environment so everything is ready for you when you wake
up. Clean and organize your desk, do the dishes, pick up your laundry - do all of those little
things that will prepare you for the next day.
After you reset your environment, ask yourself if there’s anything else you can do to make
things easier in the morning. This might include prepping your backpack, or laying out your
clothes, or leaving reminders for yourself for anything you might forget in the morning.
When I go on an early morning flight, for example, I leave a sticky note next to my
phone reminding me to pack my glasses and retainers, as I can’t pack them the night
before.
By setting yourself up for a more successful tomorrow, future you will thank you, and it’s
a good feeling. In fact, I find that the more you do this, the more inclined you are to
do it in the future. It acts as a positive feedback loop.
Lastly, mistake number five is not taking time to reflect on your day.
Too often we focus on the negatives - the things we wanted to accomplish but didn’t
- and forget to appreciate the small wins.
A great way to remind yourself of the small wins and express gratitude for the things
you’ve accomplished is through reflection. The way that I do this is by journaling at
the end of the day. And just like I have a journaling template for the morning, I have
one for the night as well.
I write about the three most amazing things that happened today, three lessons I learned,
and what would have made today better. This reflection provides perspective so that I’m
not always focusing on what I didn’t do, and also helps me with future direction. I
can identify consistent themes under “what would make today better” and can focus my
energy in a more data-backed manner that’s more likely to improve my life.
The last item that I journal about at the end of each day is the singular most important
question for the day, which I then pose to my subconscious before I sleep. Doing so gives
my unconscious mind the chance to mull it over while I sleep, often giving me a fresh
take in the morning.
If you’re trying to optimize your night routine, remember that there is no one size
fits all solution. Use these points as a guide and experiment with what works for you. And
don’t be afraid to change things up if they’re not working. Find what works best for you,
and even when you think you’ve got it all figured out, keep experimenting and trying
to make it even better!
And that’s it. Those are five night routine mistakes and what you can do to fix them.
If you have a night routine that works well for you, or if you think I missed a night
routine mistake, be sure to share your thoughts in the comment section below. You never know
who you might help out!
Thank you all so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out Anatomy
of a Perfect Evening Routine, or my video going over Surgeon Sleep Secrets. Much love
and I’ll see you there.