How to build a wind down routine that sticks
If you're reading this in bed with your phone at full brightness, we won't judge. Most of us have done exactly that while searching for sleep tips.
A wind down routine is a set of small things you do in the same order every night, in the hour before you want to be asleep. Repeat it enough and your body starts to treat the first step as a cue. Here's how to build one that lasts past the first week.
Start with the time you get up
It sounds backwards, but the most useful anchor is your wake up time. The NHS advice is to go to bed and get up at similar times every day, weekends included. Your body clock sets itself largely by morning light, so keeping the same wake time is what settles your evenings over a few weeks.
Pick a wake time you can keep on a Saturday. Count back seven to nine hours for most adults, then another hour for your routine. That's when the wind down starts.
The hour before bed
You don't need all of these. Choose three or four, keep them in the same order, and give them a fortnight.
60 minutes out: screens down
The NHS suggests avoiding screens for an hour before bed. Phones keep your brain busy long after the scrolling stops. If an hour feels impossible, start at 20 minutes and move it back each week. Put the phone on charge outside the bedroom if you can. A cheap alarm clock pays for itself here.
50 minutes out: last snack, last drink
Big meals late in the evening can keep you awake. So can caffeine, which is in tea, coffee, cola, energy drinks and dark chocolate. The NHS also advises avoiding alcohol and nicotine for one to two hours before bed. Alcohol might help you drop off, but sleep in the second half of the night tends to be lighter and more broken.
40 minutes out: supplements, if you take them
If you take Starshroooms, this is when the two gummies go in, 30 to 60 minutes before bed. Linking them to a fixed step such as brushing your teeth makes them much harder to forget. Starshroooms contain Reishi at a 20:1 extract, plus Vitamin B5, which contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
30 minutes out: dim the lights
Switch off the main light and use a lamp. Warm, low light tells your body the day is ending. A warm shower or bath at this point helps some people too.
20 minutes out: empty your head
If worries wake you up or keep you awake, write them down before bed. A short list of tomorrow's jobs works well. It's a simple trick and it's in the NHS advice for a reason.
10 minutes out: something slow
Reading a paper book, gentle stretching, slow breathing or quiet music. The NHS mentions all of these. Keep it boring on purpose.
Set up the room once
The NHS recommends a bedroom that's quiet, dark and cool. Blackout blinds or an eye mask, earplugs if you have noisy neighbours, and a window open a crack if it's safe. You only have to sort this out once.
When you can't sleep
If you're still awake after around 20 minutes, get up, go to another room and do something relaxing in low light until you feel sleepy. Lying there willing yourself to sleep usually makes it worse. This comes straight from the NHS guidance and from cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia.
Why most routines fall apart
They start too big. Someone decides on a Sunday night to give up screens, caffeine and late snacks all at once, and by Wednesday it's gone. Change one thing a week. The sequence is what builds the cue, so keep the steps in order even on nights you cut them short.
Travel, new babies and shift work will knock any routine off course. When that happens, go back to the wake up time first and rebuild from there.
A sample routine
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 7.00am | Up, curtains open, outside for ten minutes if you can |
| 2.00pm | Last coffee of the day |
| 9.30pm | Phone on charge in the kitchen |
| 9.45pm | Brush teeth, two Starshroooms |
| 10.00pm | Lamp on, main light off, write tomorrow's list |
| 10.15pm | Read in bed |
| 10.30pm | Lights out |
If you've struggled to sleep most nights for three months or more, or poor sleep is affecting your day, speak to your GP. Long term insomnia is common and treatable.
