Creating a relaxing evening routine for better sleep

Creating a relaxing evening routine for better sleep is a positive goal. A relaxing evening routine makes you have a better night, which can help you with how your next day goes. If you are a person with epilepsy, lack of sleep or bad sleep is the number one cause of seizures.

Being a person with epilepsy like me any little thing you can do or tool to use to help avoid having seizures or lower the frequency of having seizures is something you might be willing to do. We will cover the key components of a relaxing even routine:

• Consistent sleep schedule
• Calming environment
• Limit screen time / stimulating activities
• Relaxation practices

This all helps you to wake up positive and manage to have a good day and if you are with epilepsy, it can help you not deal with episodes of your seizures as much. Which, the less seizure I deal with the better my day is.

The key components to a relaxing even routine

Setting a consent sleep schedule

Setting a consent sleep schedule is the first step in setting up a good sleep. Your body and mind need a routine. If you stick to a relaxing evening routine and good morning routine it helps your circadian rhythm by making your body and mind sleepier and awake at the same time every day. This helps with medication management, work schedules, school schedules, and the routines of your family, like children in the morning, etc.

If you need to adjust the time of sleep or wake-up time to find your natural rhythm or to adjust to a change in your daily schedule start with an hour or less change per day till you have fully adjusted your schedule.

As millions of people have pointed out when traveling, drastically changing your sleep schedule has negative after-effects, like trouble sleeping, daytime tiredness, and sometimes difficulty with cognitive thinking. Sticking to a basic relaxing evening and morning routine makes a difference.

Create a calming environment

But how can you become consistent with your sleep schedule? A key thing to know is the calmer and less energy you use before sleep helps dearly on how good your sleep can be. Adjusting the temperature in the house or your room, dimming the lights, or having fewer lights on altogether, and decluttering your bedroom are all things you can do to have a calm bedtime set-up.

And for games, we will go over more specific later in the article but shutting off screens (TV, phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) helps too.

To help you slow down and calm your mind you can read a book or use tools like white noise creators that cancel out other noise to calm the body and mind down for a good night’s sleep and help you concentrate on stuff too.

You can also have aromatherapy and use essential scents to help calm the mind and body down to prepare for a good night’s sleep. In the article Top Stress Relief Products, we point out some key essential scents that help with epilepsy itself but also in the article we point out some scents that can also be triggers for epilepsy.

This makes your area a more sleep-friendly space.

Limit Screen time and stimulating activities

Scientists have established that the blue light that comes from most electronics keeps your mind awake and it is harder for you to have a fully restful sleep. I know myself and plenty of people I know look at our phones too much before going to sleep.

Replacing your screen with something much calmer an hour before going to sleep is a big plus in a plan to limit screen time. To replace screen time but not be super bored and that also helps with calming the mind you can write in a journal or read a book. For me, I read books (when I remember I should before bed) from people like James Patterson, Micheal Connelly, Richard Castle, and many more.

Listening to calm or more rhythmic music can also help. All of these are relaxing activities that help set up a relaxing evening routine and prepare for a good night’s sleep.

Relaxation Practices

Besides a sleep schedule, a calm environment, and limited screen time there are also techniques you can use yourself to help. Meditation has been linked to having a restful mind and a restful mind helps with sleep. I personally almost always fall asleep when I meditate. Deep breathing and gentle yoga are two other types of techniques that can be used to help calm the body and mind down and prepare it more for sleep.

Conclusion

A key thing to remember is every small step counts. Making small changes in your evening routine can add up to a very positive result. It can help with getting you good sleep, which helps improve your mental and physical health. If you are a person with epilepsy, taking small steps and making small changes in your nightly routine can make a big difference in your life.

I personally know that a relaxing even routine is a must for me. The possibility of having fewer, preventing, or having less severe seizures is something I work towards all the time.

Leave a comment about a peaceful evening routine for you.

(This article is an informational and personal experience article only. If you have any symptoms or questions related to your health, talk to your neurologist, nurse, or local doctor first.)