The Secrets To Creating A Bedtime Ritual

When I ask most people how much sleep they get a night, I typically hear 6-7  hours. Then I ask do they have a bed time, most give me a double take. I was the same way about a decade ago when I was working with my first trainer I threw up all these excuses about why I couldn’t work out consistently and he asked me what time did I go to bed and I was like what’ He said if I went to bed by 10pm on any given night I could get up at [5:30] or 6am and still get a good night sleep. Again another double take.

You see at the time I was working 50+ hours week and typically didn’t get home until 7pm which didn’t leave much down time before bed. I knew I needed to make a changes, so I said what do I have to lose. I set a bedtime. Was it hard, you betcha but when I decided to improve my health I went all in!

Think about it, when we were kids or you probably do this with your kids now, you have a bedtime ritual or routine.

• Bath
• Story time
• Favorite stuffed animal
• Night light to scare off the boogie man

As an adult what is our bed time ritual’ Crawl into bed after we fell asleep on the couch’ When our eyes blur looking at the computer’  Are you still working till the wee hours and then decide to shut it down’

On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night. “If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you will start dropping weight.” Michael Breus, PhD

How about we say today we are going to set a bed time ritual. To get you started I’ll tell you what I do.

• Shut down at 9pm, that means I’m making my way to bed, brushing my teeth and washing my face
• I drink my Cleanse for Life and Chai T
• I meditate for 10 minutes
• Read at least 10 pages/night

Typically that relaxes me enough to go right to sleep. I also keep a notebook by bed in case I’m too keyed up to sleep and just need to get the thoughts out of my head. I don’t sleep with my cellphone in my room, it’s a distraction. I use an old fashion alarm clock.

How about you” Could you start a bed time ritual’ If shutting it down early is unimaginable right now, what about setting up your room for sleep. Do you have a good mattress, pillow, is your room comfortable’ Is there too much light’ Too much noise’ I’m a huge fan of black out shades.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment below.

If you are someone who’s been skimping in the sleep department and want to learn other healthy ways to add to your life check out my Lean and Sexy program.  Hurry offer ends, Sunday, August 31st.