Design a Peaceful Evening Routine

A peaceful evening routine will allow us to prepare effectively for the day ahead. How do we design an evening routine that will work well for ourselves?  Ideally, an evening routine should include times of preparation, pick up, and personal care in order to enable a peaceful ending to our day.

Our evening routine has the ability to help us get a good night’s sleep because we are calm and collected before we get to bed. In contrast, an ineffective bedtime routine can make it really challenging to fall asleep.

We cannot always guarantee that our sleep will go well, but we can set up habits and patterns as we go to bed which help our bodies and brains settle down.

Let’s take some time to examine the components of a peaceful evening routine, so that we can design one for ourselves.

Prepare

An ideal evening routine will begin with a time of preparation. These are a few of the things that I like to prepare before I head up to bed.

Calendars

 I like to begin this time by opening up my calendar and taking a look at what is coming up in the morning. I also will talk to my husband about what time his first call is for the day. Since I don’t typically schedule things early in the mornings, my morning wake up time is usually determined by his video conference schedule. We like to drink coffee and walk the dogs together in the morning, so we need to make sure that we get up with enough time to do that before his workday starts.

I also like to take a look at the other appointments that I might have during the day. These usually happen after lunch for me, but it is helpful to know when I might need to leave the house.  

We have shared calendars with the kids, so I will take a look at their class schedules or work schedules. Sometimes my older son has a really early shift at work, so I like to know that before I go to bed. That way, if I hear him in the kitchen in the morning, I’m not surprised.

Coffee

I love to have my coffee ready first thing in the morning. I love to walk downstairs and smell the fresh pot waiting for me. So, I take the time to prepare the pot the night before. We have our coffee set up on a smart plug. This means that I can ask my HomePod to turn the coffee on when I wake up, and it starts brewing. 

Dishwasher

I make sure to run the dishwasher before bed so that I wake up to clean dishes. If there are other dishes that don’t fit, I’ll make sure they are in the sink before bed so that I can deal with them in the morning. These are usually dessert dishes that came up after the kids finished cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.  

Pick up

I like to do a quick family room pick up before I head upstairs to bed. If there are things that are out on the kitchen island or coffee table, I put them away. I put the remotes back in their caddy so that we can find them tomorrow!

Another thing I do is fold up our couch blankets. We have 3 blankets that sit on our couch and throughout the day they get used by either us or the dogs. The blankets usually look pretty messy in the evening. I take a couple of minutes to fold them before I head upstairs.

Sometimes, I will add a quick desk pick up to this routine. I tend to put the mail and packages on my desk as they come in throughout the day, and sometimes my desk looks like a huge disaster at night. When I walk into the schoolroom, and my desk is a mess, I want to walk right back out and avoid everything! I can set myself up for success by picking up my desk in the evening.

This evening pick up should not be an hour-long cleanup session. We don’t need to get out the duster or the vacuum before we go to bed. We are just putting the obvious things away that are out of place and quickly making the common areas look more presentable. Please don’t get carried away by the cleaning before you get to bed.

After I have prepared and picked up, it is time to take myself and the dogs upstairs. I say my goodnights to the kids at this point. They usually end up staying up another hour after we go to bed.

Now it is time to get myself ready for bed!  

Personal Care

Once I’m in the bathroom doing my routines, I try to make sure that the way I do them is calm and peaceful. I adjust my mindset while I’m brushing my teeth to be one of gratitude for the day. I think about the blessings of the day and about how I can settle down and be ready for sleep.

This is not a time when I like to discuss current events with my husband or try to solve problems. My personal care time is like a little spa break that I try to take before I get to bed.

I get my teeth brushed, my face clean and moisturized, my hair brushed, and I usually apply a little lavender essential oil to my wrists with a roller. When I was doing radiation treatment, I would also take this time to apply one last bit of lotion to the area so that I wouldn’t be bothered by itching at night.

Then I get my pajamas on for the night. If it is winter, I’m usually in one of my two-piece pajamas. I like to sleep in lighter weight pajamas with lots of blankets. That way I don’t get too hot in the middle of the night. I used to be able to sleep in fleece pajamas, but that is not the case anymore. I pick soft and pretty pajamas in the wintertime. In the warmer months, I’ll either wear short-sleeved pajamas or a pretty chemise. I will keep a robe next to my bed in case I need to put it on to go outside my bedroom.  

Once I get to bed, I’ll also usually take a quick drink from a water bottle I keep near my bed and apply lip balm and hand lotion. With all the hand washing I’m doing, I need to keep my hands moisturized. Otherwise, my hands will crack and bleed!

Peaceful Endings

Now that I’m in bed, it is time for a peaceful ending to the day. It’s time to make sure the alarm is set, and the lights are dimmed. 

I have two different ways that I will end the evening at this point. If I’m in bed alone, I will read a fiction book until I can’t keep my eyes open. I read on my iPad, but I make sure that night shift is turned on. This keeps the blue light dimmed on the screen so that it doesn’t keep me awake. I also make sure that I’m not reading a self-help book. Before bed is not the time to be thinking about how to be more productive. Ideally, this reading should be relaxing, not stimulating.

If my husband is home, we usually end up going to bed at the same time. If he is there, we take some time for pillow talk, snuggling, and intimacy. It is a great way to close out our day together.

Peacefully ending the day helps my brain settle and relax so that sleep comes easier. This doesn’t mean I’ll fall asleep right away. There are times when it takes me more time to get to sleep than I’d like. I find that if I have cultivated peace in my evening routine, my brain is much more likely to stay in a relaxed state, and I’ll eventually drift off to sleep.

I would love to hear about your evening routine. How do you end the day? Are there any ideas you’d like to share about things that work for you?