You May Hate Routine — But Your Body Loves It
Fatima doesn’t like to have routines in her life and enjoys going to bed when she pleases and waking up whenever.
Or so she says.
In fact, her life is dominated by the routines of work, volunteering in the community, and household chores.
She also suffers from insomnia.
She knows that following a sleep routine is an important step in overcoming insomnia. However, she chafed at the notion of getting up and going to bed at a regular time. Perhaps it reminded her of being a child.
More likely, this was one corner of her life where she has a little discretion with her time. Determining what time to go to bed and wake up feels like a little slice of freedom from all of that.
Yet she pays for this freedom with less optimal sleep.
The fact is, good sleep depends on a regular routine.
That's because the body relies on signals from the brain to tell it when to wake up and when to fall asleep. These signals are influenced by body clocks called zeitgebers, the most important of which is light.
Here's what you should do in order to give your body the regular routine that it needs:
Wake up in the morning at a consistent time of day and get daylight in your eyes as soon as possible. This sets your internal clock and tells your brain to wake up fully. The time to wind down at the end of the day is also influenced by this signal.
Develop a consistent wind-down routine before going to bed. This should start 60–90 minutes before bed time.
During wind-down time, avoid blue light. Blue light tells the brain to wake up. You can avoid blue light by turning your screens to night mode. Even better would be to not look at your phone, iPad or computer screens at all during this time.
Whatever you do during your wind-down routine, it should be relaxing, enjoyable and not stimulating.
With a regular routine, your body is optimized for better sleep.
Windows of time after waking up and before going to bed are ideally spent doing things you enjoy and look forward to.
The routine itself should be consistent — what you do with this time can be rewarding “free time.”