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Having a healthy evening routine is incredibly important for our overall health. If you’re not getting high quality sleep, this can have a negative impact on your mental and physical wellbeing. A healthy evening routine can help with weight loss, skin health, physical health, heart health, and your focus and memory. However, it can be easy to slip into bad habits.
If you’d like to make some positive changes, here are some tips and advice on how to develop a healthy evening routine.
Have a healthy evening meal
Try and eat a healthy dinner as often as you can. Enjoying a home cooked, nutritious meal will help you to nourish your body, steady your blood sugar levels, and set you up for a good night’s sleep. The aim here is to keep your energy levels steady and avoid any spikes or crashes.
Try to finish your last meal at least two hours before you go to bed. This will help your stomach digest the food before you lie down for the night.
Practice mindfulness and gratitude
Being stressed and anxious can be a main factor as to why you are struggling to get a good night’s sleep. Practising gratitude is an easy way to combat this.
Get in the habit of writing down three things that you were grateful for that day in a notebook each evening. Personalised notebooks are fantastic for practising mindfulness and gratitude. If you’d like to have a go at practicing gratitude and mindfulness in 2023, we suggest investing in one of the Martha Brook personalised notebooks. They’re ideal for any occasion and also make brilliant gifts.
Cut out caffeine early
Try to avoid drinking caffeine after 3pm. This may seem like an early cutoff, but drinking caffeinated drinks after this time can detriment your sleeping pattern later on. Having caffeine even six hours before your bedtime can disrupt your sleep routine, and impact on your physical and mental health.
If you’re someone who struggles to sleep at the best of times, try and avoid caffeinated drinks after lunch.
Try meditation
Meditating regularly can help you to relax, both physically and mentally. Meditating is a great exercise to do before bed. Mindfulness meditation can help you to release the day’s stress and tension and transition into sleep.
Focus on your awareness and just sitting peacefully with your thoughts, this gives your body a chance to rest and relax. You could use a meditation app, or find free resources online.
Check off your to-do list, and create a new one
Plenty of people write daily to-do lists, to keep themselves organised throughout the day and ensure that they get everything done. Having a to-do list will help you to track your progress and be more productive. It’s also a great way to feel more in control, which in turn can help with stress.
If you have completed the majority of the essential tasks on your list, you can go to bed with peace of mind, ready to tackle a new list the following day.
Try to avoid too much screen time before bed
When you are settling down to go to sleep, try and avoid any electronics. Some people believe that scrolling your phone before bed can help you get off to sleep, but in fact the opposite is very likely. The blue light that comes from electronics interferes with the body’s production of melatonin, this is a hormone that is necessary for restful sleep.
Hopefully these tips for developing a healthy evening routine have inspired you to put some positive practices in place, and help you to look after your physical and mental health. How do you wind down at the end of the day?
Catherine
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