Bad quality sleep and inability to fall asleep are a common problem in our busy everyday lives. We wish we could just find a way to relax, slow down and to drift off to sleep. A proven method to increase your likelihood of getting a good night's worth of sleep is to develop a good sleep routine. After all, we are what we repeatedly do. So what might such routine consist of, you ask? Here are some top tips taken from our experience.
Keep a regular pattern of going to bed
Going to bed every day at roughly the same time will help your body regulate its sleep pattern. It will naturally adjust and beging to feel tired at the time you are going to bed. This will make the time you spent waiting to fall asleep shorter. If you are used to going to sleep and waking up at different times every day, adapting a sleep routine might take you a little while, but that's okay. After two days, your body will start to adjust to the new pattern and after a week you’ll find yourself feeling tired rougly at the right time for you to go to bed. You might also begin to naturally wake up a few minutes before your alarm sounds – a sign that your routine is becoming natural. Establishing sleep habits is a wonderful way to feel more energetic and productive.
Leave all your screens in another room
Our devices produce high-energy blue light waves, which are only slightly less powerful than damaging UV rays. This is detrimental to our ability to fall asleep. Sunlight naturally contains blue light, but the phones and laptops we use have much higher amounts of blue light than the sun. Before electricity, our eyes would sense darkness usually a few hours after dusk. At that time, your brain would release melatonin which is the key hormone that makes us feel sleepy. Artificial evening light fools your eyes into thinking that the sun has not yet set. As a result, our bodies do not understand that it is nighttime, and won’t produce as much melatonin. This is why we recommend leaving all your tablets, laptops and mobile phone in another room (plus you will not feel the urge to do a morning social media scroll if the phone is not next to you when you wake up). You might ask, without my phone or tv, what can I do before bed to wind down? We have some grear ideas for you...
Develop a bedtime relaxation habit
Let's be honest, we spend a lot of time on our devices as it is, so bedtime is the perfect time to finally start doing all the wholesome things we always say we need to do more of to take better care of ourselves. These can include reading a few pages of a new book, flicking through a photobook, or finally picking up that coffee table book that we bought because we thought it would look cool. You can also take a longer bath, indulge in a wonderful bath salt or just put your favourite face mask on for that extra night time boost to your skin.
Why drinking a herbal infusion is our favourite bedtime relaxation habit
Our favourite way to signal to ourselves that it is time to wind down, is to make our favourite herbal infusion. The best thing is, you can have one whilst you are reading or waiting for your face mask to do its magic. Perfect! Developing a habint of brewing a herbal tea before bed is excellent if you are looking to build a routine that can help you relax and fall asleep. There are many teas on th market, both loose leaf and it tea bags, but there is one particular classic infusion that we think is just made for the job. It does not contain caffeine, but instead is packed with all the herbal goodness containing active ingredients that promote sleep. It is renowned for its calming properties that help you get the shut eye you need. What is it you might ask? It is the classic french Bonne Nuit infusion.
The wonders of Bonne Nuit herbal infusion
This peculiar blend, known as one of the classic provancal infusions (tisane), combines the best local provancal ingredients, including dried lavender and wild herbs. You can often find it in local pharmacies, Very often the recipes will differ slightly from pharmacy to pharmacy, as different local produces perfect their own unique blends. While the composition of this infusions differs slightly depending where you buy it from, it always includes some key herbs and dried ingredients that make it what it is and give the tea its unique aroma.
If you are into your botanicals, you will absolutely enjoy learning more about each of the ingredients (you can do so on our blog here). Strewn on the sunny hills of provence, the key ingredients of our bonne nuit include hawthorn, eschscholzia (poppy), orange leaves, passion flower and crucialy the magic herb known as valerian. Our Bonne Nuit pays homage to the flavours and scents of the rolling provancal hills. Try it and fall in love with it. To purchase, go to our heritage set, which includes this infusion, or buy it as a stand alone product.