11 Ways To Create A Relaxing Evening Routine For Quality Rest

After a hard day’s work, you deserve (and need) some quality rest. That’s why you should follow these ways to create a relaxing evening routine. With these tips, you can ensure you have a good night sleep, every time.

Having a calming evening routine isn’t just about adding a bunch of activities before bedtime. It’s also doing and avoiding certain activities an hour or more before you tuck yourself in at night. Moreover, you also have to stick to your schedule and not switch activities every other day. This way, you prime your mind and body for quality sleep on the clock, regularly.

Before you plan out your relaxing evening routine, check out this free Automated Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire from the Center for Environmental Therapeutics. It will tell you whether you’re a morning or night person, or your “circadian rhythm type”. You’ll also get an estimate on what time you’re first able to fall asleep easily and what time your “natural” bedtime is. Once finished, you can schedule your evening based on the results.

1. Limit caffeine 7 hours before bed

Initially, it was thought that 6 hours before bed was enough time to remove all sleep-disruptive effects of caffeine. However, this study shows that even when consumed that early, caffeine still reduced total nightly sleep amounts by more than an hour.

So if you want to eat chocolate, drink coffee, energy drinks, or tea, make sure you do it 7 hours before you hit the sheets. After that, cut out all the caffeine so you can follow your natural sleep time. Or, drink a glass of milk or some decaf sleepy tea instead. This decadent caramel-coconut caffeine-free tea from DavidsTea is my favorite for winding down.

2. No alcohol 4 hours before

Although alcohol can make you feel sleepy, it will affect the quality of your sleep. It can lead to waking up in the middle of the night, headaches, night sweats, and nightmares. If you want to drink a bit of wine or beer for a nightcap, do it at least 4 hours before bed, or not at all.

3. Exercise is a way to create a relaxing evening routine

One of the ways to create a relaxing evening routine is to exercise. According to this article from Harvard Health, exercise seems to help people fall asleep faster and spend more time in deep sleep. Take note that this does not include high-intensity exercises, because that would do the opposite and lead to poor sleep quality.

If you have a day job and exercise after work, then ensure you finish your intense workouts at least an hour before bedtime. Otherwise, you can do less vigorous workouts like wind down yoga to help your body relax in time for some shuteye. Try these relaxing yoga poses that feel like a massage.

4. Eat a healthy meal

Having a healthy dinner is one of the ways to create a relaxing evening routine. To ensure you don’t get interrupted by gas pain or indigestion when you sleep, avoid eating spicy and/or gas-forming food at night. Don’t be tempted to eat heavily to curb the cravings afterwards. Instead, stop the midnight snacking by adding in some chicken or fish to keep you full through the night.

If you live with your family or friends, this is a good way to spend quality time with them over dinner. One good rule to implement is to avoid using phones at the table. If you live alone, then make sure you eat mindfully and take the opportunity to start easing yourself into a good end of the day.

Try to enjoy the prep time as well. Making your meal is a chance to be away from the computer screen (which might be rare especially if you’re working on side hustles after your day job), so use that time to rest your eyes. You can play some relaxing music to lift your mood while cooking too.

5. Prepare for tomorrow

This is one of the best lessons my father taught me which has always been part of my relaxing evening routine. When I was a child, we always had to prepare all our books, pens, uniform, etc. for the next day. That ensured we didn’t leave behind anything or scramble around because of missing socks or wrinkled shirts.

And even up to now, this habit has saved me from a lot of preventable micro-stressors. So before you settle in for the night, make sure everything’s prepped for tomorrow. That can be making your overnight oats for breakfast, laying out your outfit (if you’re not working from home), or packing things you need to bring for any errands you’re running the day after.

6. Take a shower

I know those who shower in the day might skip this section, but hear me out. Showers used to be part of my morning routine too. It was something I couldn’t go to work without. But when I transitioned to night showers I found it fit perfectly into a relaxing evening routine.

First, it washes off the dust and sweat before you hit the sheets, an important hygiene hack especially in this pandemic. Second, it allows you to wind down after a long day. Add in some shower steamers (or bath bombs if you prefer baths) and boom you’ve just added some extra relaxation to your evening routine.

Pro tip: if you shower or bathe at night, try to do it before or after dinner to allow enough time for your hair to dry. You can also use one of these super absorbent hair towels to make it dry faster without having to resort to blow drying. That way, you reduce your risk of getting fungal infections and hair breakage—issues you can get when sleeping with wet hair. Plus, you don’t drip all over the floor as well!

7. Self-care is a way to create a relaxing evening routine

Of course, one of the surefire ways to create a relaxing evening routine would be to add in some self-care. There are so many activities you can do for this, and you can check my relax series for some ideas! Basically, you want to add something that makes you feel good for a calming evening routine.

You can use a facial mask, do some reading, or watch a few minutes of your favorite show. Whatever it is, don’t skip it and always make it a priority. You deserve some me-time to recharge after a full day. When you do, you’re ready to take on the next day with renewed strength.

8. Give thanks

Whether it’s morning or night, gratitude should always be a part of every routine. Never forget to take a few moments to say thank you for all the things you have, the things you were able to make happen for the day, or simply for being alive. It’s so easy to take a lot of things for granted, and that makes it doubly important to find time to be grateful.

You can complain about your job, but then you should still be thankful that you have one despite the high unemployment rates globally. You can complain that your house is so messy, but you can also be thankful that you have a home amidst all the rising rates of homelessness. You get my point, I hope.

Choosing to be thankful lifts your mood, so it’s one of the definite ways to create a relaxing evening routine. Read this for more tips on how to incorporate gratitude not just in the evening, but in your daily life.

9. Reflect on Your Day

Before you doze off to dreamland, reflect on your day. You can write in a journal about it, or simply lie on your bed and look back. I like doing the latter before I write in my gratitude journal. I usually play some relaxing playlists like ocean waves or crackling fires then replay my day like a movie with my eyes closed.

You can then pick out the moments that made you happy, the tasks you want to improve on, or other things that stood out for you. Whatever it is, use it as a time to introspect. However, I would suggest not to get worked up (because that might cause you to be wide awake).

If you believe in God, then use this as a time to pray. This is a wonderful opportunity for some nightly personal time—away from any distraction—to speak to Him.

10. Wish someone goodnight

One of the other ways to create a relaxing evening routine would be to kiss, hug, or message someone you love goodnight. This act of goodwill almost always ensures you sleep with a smile on your face. And this is great, considering it’s difficult to sleep if you’re angry or sad about something.

Physical touch also boosts all those happy hormones—reducing the stress and increasing the bond between you and your loved ones. And though you may take it for granted, having someone wishing you a goodnight back feels good and can definitely contribute to a calming evening routine.

If you live alone, then you can always send a message to say goodnight to the one you love, even if they’re in another time zone.

11. Turn off all the lights

And finally, time to get to bed! All those ways to create a relaxing evening routine should prime you for some quality zzzs.

Make sure you turn off all the lights before you close your eyes. Sleeping with lights on, whether if it’s from a nightlight or the tv has been linked to depression, obesity, and increased risk of chronic illnesses.

After that, you can tuck yourself in for some sweet, sweet dreams!

Create your own relaxing evening routine

Routines help us put structure to our day, ensure that we make time for everything (work AND play), and keeps us focused. Amidst all the uncertainties of the times, having a schedule that we can rely on has tremendous physical, emotional, and mental impacts that we can’t discard.

As such, don’t put your after-work hours to the wayside. Follow these ways to create a relaxing evening routine and make sure you give your body the quality rest it deserves!

If you’re looking for a solid day schedule to follow, read or pin 10 Healthy Habits For Your Morning Routine.