10 Things to Do Before Bed to Be Healthier

It happens to all of us to wake up more tired and lacking in energy than before bed, even if we sleep for several hours that seem enough for recovery and rest. What affects the quality of the mornings is both the bedtime routine and the waking habits.

It is important not to go to bed stressed, thinking about activities that will occupy your time the next day, just as it is important to sleep in a well-ventilated, clean room with bedding and pillows made of materials that do not cause allergies. Here are some details that can help you have a more restful sleep and a more energetic morning.

1. Use mouthwash before bed

You may feel that daily brushing is enough, but both floss and mouthwash have a well-established role. Using mouthwash reduces the risk of periodontitis, but it also reduces the level of tartar, which contributes to the sensation of fresh breath. Look for alcohol-free menthol to avoid the burning sensation.

2. Be careful to remove make-up with degreasing products

During sleep, the sebaceous glands continue to do their job and secrete sebum, so in the morning you can wake up with full skin, even if you washed your face before bed. Use a degreasing cleanser or a facial soap with plant extract, such as blueberries. Excellent are charcoal products or the famous black soap, which clogs the pores and leaves no residue behind so that your skin will breathe easier during the night.

3. Drink an herbal infusion before bed

Be careful not to go to bed letting the stress take over your thoughts. There are many plant mixtures specifically designed to help you get a good night's sleep. These may contain chamomile, valerian, lavender, lime, passionflower, rhubarb, kava root, hops, all designed to have a calming, calming effect. You can prepare such a mixture yourself, according to your preferences, so that you can decide if you want a relaxing effect or induce the feeling of drowsiness.

Take care! If you have sachets or tea boxes at home that say jasmine or lavender tea, read the ingredients label carefully. Apart from the fact that tea can only be called a tea-based drink (camellia Sinensis), the others being infusions, there are green teas on the market with added herbs or aromas of lavender or jasmine, which the distributors do not mention as they also have green tea, but I write generic jasmine or lavender tea. Green tea contains theine that will never let you sleep.

4. Moisturize your skin

If you have dry skin, you will feel itchy and irritated during sleep, which will prevent you from resting. It is ideal to use after the shower a lotion with a moisturizing effect and a pleasant, soothing, non-energizing aroma, such as lavender, ylang-ylang, or jasmine. In addition, if your skin is very dry, make sure that the body lotion and face cream contain vitamins A and E, which restore the skin's elasticity.

5. Use natural, non-allergic fiber bedding

The ideal is silk, cotton, and linen (if you are not allergic to any of them), or materials specially created for people who develop allergies. It is important that the material allows your skin to breathe, otherwise you risk waking up sweaty.

There is nothing more pleasant than nesting in a bed with clean linen, which does not wrinkle, does not shrink, and especially does not stick to the body, as can happen with polyester ones. If you resonate with aromatherapy, you can put two drops of essential oil on the pillow. Tip: if you want to feel like at the hotel, on vacation, use only white linen and buy a mattress topper for extra comfort.

6. Keep the notebook of dreams and ideas close

Many specialists recommend that you have a notebook or notebook and a writing object by your bed, kept handy for ideas that come to you overnight or to write down your dreams.

Strictly related to sleep, if you have an idea that starts to grind you after you have written it in your notebook, it should not haunt you at all, because you know that you will see it written the next day and you can then debate the problem.

7. Remove noise and light sources

Noise means television, hectic music, cars, and activities outside the house, which you hear when you live in a big city. Invest in thick, dark curtains that keep the lights at bay, or in sleep goggles. Melatonin, the sleep hormone, is secreted in the dark. Invest in devices where you can mute quiet music.

Not the cell phone and not the laptop! It can be a CD player or a special device. Depending on your preferences, you can select music for sleeping children, such as Mozart selections, light jazz, concert coffee, or, why not, sea waves or raindrops. You can also find such CDs or DVDs in various stores where decorative items for home or bookstores are sold.

8. Avoid protein before bed

Avoid any food two hours before bedtime if you want to be able to rest, especially foods that contain protein. The digestive system is put to work as soon as you eat and this does not let you sleep well anyway, but foods high in protein are much harder to digest than other foods.

Eat them during the day, a few hours before bedtime. Instead, you can drink water before bed, in small sips, slowly. Otherwise, you will need a special wake-up call to go to the bathroom at night.

9. Plan a delicious breakfast

If you are a greedy person by nature, the thought that when you wake up you will be pampered with a tasty breakfast will make you happy and will make you wake up happy, knowing that a beautiful day is coming, which starts well. 

Plan activities that you enjoy for the first part of the day, for the same reason: to wake up with a desire to act. It's a kind of placebo effect, but in the end, it all starts with the brain, more precisely with the thoughts. We mostly set the way we feel.

10. Get out of bed when the alarm goes off

Many people have a habit of setting the clock to ring every half hour or even every 10 minutes, an hour or two before the time needed to wake up. You can do this if you want to wake up slowly and still dream, and the waking time is not nailed and you do not have to hurry to get somewhere.

But if you want to get somewhere or have something to do, the delay can give you a headache and you risk waking up even harder as the alarm sounds for the third or fourth time.

Specialists say that for a morning wake-up call and an organized program, it is good to get out of bed at the first alarm and go straight to the bathroom, where you wash your face with cold water. The rest of the awakening details will catch you fresher.