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1. You should sleep roughly the same time every night, give or take an hour. For example, if you go to bed at 10 or 11 p.m., you should get up at 6 or 7 a.m.
2. Wind down with a book or something else, such as a board game or even tidying your house, so you won’t be staring at screens before bed ( the bright light from screens keeps you awake).
3. Having a warm shower will relax your muscles and mind, helping you have a restful sleep.
4. Do not eat too close to going to bed. Try not to eat for 1 or 2 hours before going to bed. No one likes going to bed bloated.
5. Don’t drink lots of water before bed. Stop drinking an hour before bed so that you won’t wake up like an old man to pee at 3 a.m. in the morning. Try to get most of your water intake during the day and evening so you’re well-hydrated before bed don’t chug all your water intake at night
6. Don’t drink alcohol before bed. Or at least limit the amount you drink. It’s known alcohol makes you fall asleep faster, but the overall quality of your sleep is much worse, and you wake more frequently. Alcohol also dehydrates you, and this can diminish your sleep quality.
7. Don’t exercise too late at night. Ideally, try working out in the morning or afternoon. If you must, work out in the evening, but not one or two hours before bed. Otherwise, your adrenaline will be high, negatively impacting your ability to fall asleep. When I work out at night, I find it very hard to sleep.
8. Don’t drink caffeine before bed. Try to drink all your caffeine as early in the day as possible. I try not to drink caffeine after noon. This means that by the time I lay down to rest, the caffeine is out of my system.
9. Don’t smoke before bed. Nicotine, like caffeine, is a stimulant and will keep you up at night.
10. Write down five things you’re grateful for and tick off your to-do list. There’s no better and more comforting feeling than completing your goals for the day. It’s the only way to get to our idealised selves, and we can only do it one day at a time. Being grateful for the small things is a cheat code to life, you instantly become happy.
11. Brushing your teeth, this is a no-brainer.
12. Clean your kitchen. I hate going to bed knowing I’ve forgotten to do my dishes or spray down the surfaces. For me, going to bed with a clean kitchen means going to bed with a clean mind.
13. One easy hack is to use lamps at night on their lowest possible setting rather than have your main lights on. Your body prefers a dark environment at night as you get closer to bed time due to your circadian rythm (natural body clock). The picture below is me now in a darkish environment winding down for bed.

The Importance Of Good Sleep Hygiene And night Time Habits

If you follow the above advice, it should help massively. I know it has helped me a lot.

Good sleep hygiene and nighttime habits are vital for living a happy, enjoyable life.

We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping, or about 26 years. This is equivalent to 227,916 hours. 

Just like we need to get our wakefulness right, we need to get our sleep right.

We always focus on:

I must do this; I must do that.

I’ll go here.

I’ll go there.

But how many of us stop and think:

How can I improve my sleep routine?

Unfortunately, not many of us do.

And if you ask yourself that question.

Great, you’ve taken the first step.

Now, focus on the advice above and get to work.

Some Additional Helpful Habits

• Get a massage from your spouse or give him/her one. It feels great to get a massage, and it feels great to give someone else one. We humans are givers; we generally feel good knowing that we’re helping someone else feel good.
• Listen to classical or calming music. This will relax your body and mind.
• Light a candle; pleasant smells can help relax and calm us.
• Do some deep, slow breathing. This will slow your heart rate and trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest and digest nervous system rather than the fight-and-flight one. This is extremely relaxing.
• Meditation is another way to relax your body and mind. It helps prevent you from getting lost in your thoughts and instead immerses you in the present moment, which is deeply satisfying. To meditate, you can either focus on your breath for 5-10 minutes while sitting in a cross-legged position with your eyes closed or take the same posture and repeat a mantra for 5 minutes, e.g., “Ohm” (this type of meditation is called transcendental meditation).

Good nighttime habits enable us to sleep at a time we like so we can get up early and seize the day.

Benjamin Franklin said “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”.

And I believe him.