3 Things You Might Incorporate Into Your Night Routine

A night-time routine could help you fall asleep soundly – or not. Most folks don’t think about their night-time routine let alone plan it out well. Guest author, Sheryl Wright, shares three things you can add to your nightly regime so that you can drift off into the best night’s sleep.


1. Creating the Atmosphere

The first thing you want to do at night addresses the atmosphere. The reason you need to address your atmosphere is that this could help you fall asleep. There’s a lot in your room that could be making it harder for you to sleep that you need to rectify.


Some things you’ll have to do every night while others you don’t have to worry about for a while once you’ve addressed them. For example, if your mattress isn’t comfortable, then that could be causing you to sleep poorly. All you have to do is buy the right mattress. Once you do that, you don’t have to worry about this for some time. Find a mattress specialist who caters to your needs. This will ensure you can find the right bed.

Another thing you have to worry about every night is light. Any lights that remain on including TV screens and smartphones can keep you up. Turn everything off. You also want to use noise-cancelling headphones or a white noise machine to drown out noises that might be keeping you up at night. Do this at night, and you’ll see how much better you’ll sleep.

2. Addressing the Body

The next thing you have to address is your body. There’s a lot you could be doing for your body so that it’s ready to fall asleep at night. For example, you could turn on your AC, and make sure the temperature is between 60 to 67 degrees. Once your body detects that slight temperature drop, it begins to produce a little more melatonin.

This is the sleep hormone that helps you get sleepy and stay asleep throughout the night. The body’s temperature is just one thing you should pay attention to. You could also try to get your body to relax after a long day. To accomplish this, you could use a little CBD oil.

You want to find full-spectrum CBD oil for sale if you want your body to slow down, but there are other things you should pay attention to like the food you eat. You don’t want to eat spicy foods nor do you want to drink anything with caffeine at night. This includes energy drinks, sodas, and coffee just to name a few. These foods won’t help put your body in a restful state, and you might stay up longer than you want to.

3. Focus on Heart and Mind

The last thing you want to add to your night-time routine is a look into your heart. The truth is folks can get into bed and never fall asleep because they haven’t fully allowed themselves to rest. The CBD oil could help a little, but you should make it a point to address matters of the heart and mind before going to bed.

The last thing you want is to go to bed with a troubled heart. The good thing is there are a few things you can do to deal with this problem at night, from guided meditation to simply writing your emotions in a journal. Express your frustrations, joys, or whatever is on your mind so that you can go to bed without much baggage.

If you’ve got a big day tomorrow, consider writing down an outline about the way you want things to go tomorrow. This exercise may seem pointless, but mapping your day out helps your mind feel like you’ve tackled what’s making you nervous about tomorrow. Try to get started with this as early as you can so that you can shed your worries early and finally sleep.

These are three important additions for any night-time routine, but there are many more out there. Still, if you think you’ve got a problem sleeping, then it might be wise to talk to a sleep specialist to see what you can do to sleep better.


This piece was submitted by guest author, Sheryl Wright, a freelance writer who specializes in digital marketing, inclusive business, and interior design. If she is not at home reading, she is at a farmers market or climbing in the Rockies. She currently lives in Nashville, TN, with her cat, Saturn.

5 Tips to Reduce Anxiety as a Busy Parent

One of the biggest issues with parenting is not the stress that comes from parenting itself. Rather, it’s the difficulty that parents have coping with general life stresses that affect all men and women regardless of their family status. So, this is a very welcome guest post from author, Ryan Rivers.


Long-term stress is believed to be one of the key factors in anxiety development beyond genetics. As a working parent, you deal with minor amounts of stress every day. From trouble with your boss at work to worrying over the kids at home, there is a lot going on in your life and little time to find relief. After a while, that long-term stress can turn into an anxiety problem – an inability to control that anxiety even during days that are otherwise stress free.

While you may be a busy parent, dealing with your anxiety is incredibly important for your short and long-term mental health. Untreated anxiety has the potential to cause depression and significant emotional distress, and yet parents that stay too busy often have little time to control that distress. For those suffering from anxiety and don’t feel they have an opportunity to reduce it, consider the following tips for controlling your anxiety and improving your current overall wellness.

Anxiety Reduction Tips

  1. Be “Selfish” – Parenting is about living for someone else. You want to be attentive, and always in the best mood to manage your child’s wellbeing. You need to be able to be kind, and attuned to your child’s needs. Unfortunately, stress has a way of altering emotions, and can make it much more difficult to be the parent you hope to be. That’s why, while you may feel “selfish,” finding some time to be alone and reduce your stress is actually in your child’s best interests. While you may feel like taking some time out to yourself means that you’re ignoring your child’s needs, the truth is that by finding that time to reduce your stress, you’ll have an easier time paying attention to your child and giving them the love and affection they deserve, because your mind won’t be scattered and your emotions won’t be fluctuating as a result of your anxiety.
  2. Avoid Any Unhealthy Coping – Avoiding drugs and alcohol may seem like no-brainers for any good parent. But the key is to realise that even a small amount of any unhealthy coping habit in your spare time is problematic for your ability to deal with anxiety, as unhealthy coping strategies don’t help you recover from stress – they are simply a quick method to dull it. A large part of dealing with anxiety is simply overcoming your anxiousness with your mind – learning how to control your thoughts and emotions from becoming negative even when faced with a stressful situation. If you depend on unhealthy dulling strategies, then you will be less likely to overcome the stresses and may find that you depend on those coping strategies more and more in the future.
  3. Fast Relaxation Tips – You’re on a busy schedule, so spending 5 hours in a local park is probably not possible. The good news is that there are rapid relaxation strategies that can help, such as progressive muscle relaxation, visualisation, and meditation. Deep breathing, another strategy, is likely the most time efficient and very effective. Deep breathing is when you sit with your back straight in a chair and breathe in 10 times slowly. Take about 5 seconds breathing in through your nose (fill your stomach first, not your chest), hold for 4 or so seconds, and then breathe out through pursed lips for about 7 seconds. Deep breathing calms the body by slowing down your breathing habits. It also re-trains your body to breathe more efficiently, something that is often necessary for those with anxiety.
  4. Exercise – Always, always exercise, especially aerobic exercise. Running after your kids is not enough (although running with them is more than acceptable). Exercise genuinely creates a better mood, by releasing endorphins and burning away stress hormones. 30 minutes of running is great for your mental health in addition to your physical health, and most people can fit in 30 minutes of running into their busy schedule. If running isn’t a possibility, or you cannot find 30 minutes a day to exercise, try to fit in as much movement (whether it’s walking, lifting weights, etc.) into your day as possible. A body that’s moving is less likely to have as much tension.
  5. Make Time to Socialise – Many people with busy schedules and active children feel that they can’t handle another person or two coming into their home, so they stop calling their friends and family. But some socialisation is crucial for maintaining good mental health, as social support has a strong ability to reduce anxiety symptoms. So even if it’s a bit stressful to have guests over or go over to someone else’s home with your children, try to find a way to be social. Video chat if you have to, or see if there are people you can talk to on the phone more often. The time you spend with people whose company you enjoy can be invaluable to your anxiety and wellness.

Maintaining Healthy Stress Levels

You should also consider seeing a counsellor if you feel your stress is out of control, and consider talking to your partner to ensure that you both receive healthy breaks from the stresses of the day. It’s important to remember that the best thing you can do for your mental health is care. Make sure that you do treat your anxiety as someone that’s worth fighting. Parents that can successfully manage their anxiety are better parents, because they are less prone to rapid emotional shifts, make better decisions, and are far more attentive to their children. Your mental health and happiness are genuinely important, and will help you raise your child in the best environment possible.