How to Create a Sleep Sanctuary + Improve Your Evening Routine

How is your sleep right now? I don’t know about you, but my quality of sleep has not been great during lockdown. In an effort to combat all the stressful dreams, restless sleep and the extra anxiety that 2020 seems to be triggering, I’ve been leaning extra hard into my home comforts and carefully-honed routines to try and feel a little more calm. After too many years of trying to do as much as possible and scraping by with the shortest amount of sleep I could get away with (which inevitably led to a bad case of burnout), I now take my sleep very seriously. Here’s my recipe for the perfect bedroom + relaxing evening routine to make sure my sleep is the best it can be, no matter what the world may throw at me:

Create a beautiful bedroom

How to make your bedroom a sanctuary…

Make your bed

My first rule of keeping a nice house is to make my bed every single morning. As soon as I’m up, I’ll open the curtains + window, fold the top sheet + duvet back to let the bed air out while I take a shower, and then afterwards will make the bed and fluff all the pillows before I do everything else. Not only does it look better and feel more inviting to climb into each evening, but you’re more likely to keep the rest of the room tidy if the bed is made nicely. Which leads me to…

Keep it clean + inviting

A clean space is an inviting place, and an uncluttered bedroom will provide a more calming sleeping environment. Aim to wash your sheets + clean your bedroom every week, and then do a quick tidy up each day. I like to do a quick dust of the bedside tables and straighten things up when I’m making the bed each morning, and then put away any clutter and stray clothes before bedtime.

Make it a calming space

I want the bedroom to feel cosy and comfortable at the end of a long or stressful day. For me that means a calming neutral colour palette, soft lighting, a few pretty touches + luxurious details that make me happy, minimal distractions and as little clutter as possible. And I try to keep the bedroom a place free of stress or negativity (no arguments, work, emails or clutter) to make sure it’s as relaxing as possible.

Make it smell lovely

Every morning, open the windows for as long as possible to clear condensation and freshen the air. I like to go one step further to keep the room smelling beautiful with fresh flowers or a scented candle on the bedside table, using a linen spray on the curtains and sheets in the morning, and a spritzing a pillow mist just before bedtime.

Invest in the best bed + bedding you can

Diving into a big fluffy bed is one of my favourite feelings in life. And since being diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager, I know just how important a good quality mattress is for both your sleep and spinal health, so I take my bed very seriously!

I love the following formula for a 5* hotel level of comfort: start with the best quality mattress you can afford (medium-firm for back support) topped with a feather pillow topper (for maximum cosiness), two pillows on each side (I have used a TEMPUR Comfort Cloud pillow for years and swear by it), a fitted sheet on the bottom and a flat sheet on top, and a lightweight feather + down duvet. When it comes to my linens and duvet, I stick to natural fibres only – good quality and ethically sourced silk, 400 thread-count pure white cotton, or lightweight linen – for maximum comfort and breathability.

… And look after it (so it looks after you)

If you properly care for your bedding, it should stay in beautiful condition and last you for years. As a general rule, I follow these guidelines:

• Linens: Wash sheets + pillowcases every week.
• Pillows: Protect with a pillow cover under your pillowcases. Wash covers every 2 weeks. Launder or dry clean pillows twice a year.
• Mattress: Protect with a mattress cover over your mattress / topper and under your fitted sheet. Wash cover once a month, and topper every 3 months. Rotate mattress every 3 or 6 months.
• Duvet: Wash cover once a month if using a top sheet, or weekly if not. Launder or dry clean duvet once a year.

Create a relaxing bedtime

Ease yourself into the perfect slumber…

Have a winding-down routine

It’s definitely taken years for me to fully appreciate the value of an evening routine; for too long I’d either get back from work in London far too late and collapse into bed completely exhausted the moment I got home, or stay up far too late on my laptop and then not be able to switch my brain off and fall asleep. But now I try to give myself at least an hour to go from ‘on’ to ‘off’. I like to switch off the TV by 10pm, make myself a peppermint tea, take a warm bath or a quick shower and do my evening skincare routine, and climb into bed with a book to read for half an hour or so. It is so much easier to fall asleep if you allow yourself a screen-free buffer and time to properly unwind before going to bed.

… And a little pre-sleep pamper session

Though I like to keep my nightstand free of clutter, I do like to keep a stash of products to encourage a few minutes of pre-bedtime primping. For me that’s usually lip balm, hand cream, a cuticle oil and foot cream (the two things I only ever remember to use at bedtime), face mist and an extra rich face cream to slather on my neck and décolletage for an extra boost of hydration while I sleep, and – at risk of sounding extremely indulgent, a spritz of perfume.

Treat yourself to some gorgeous pyjamas

Gorgeous pyjamas are one of life’s joys, and one of my few shopping weaknesses. While I’m personally always prone to over-heating at night so don’t actually sleep in them, I love slipping into a fresh pair the moment I hope out of the bath or shower in the evening. Like bedding, try to stick to natural fibres only to ensure they’re both breathable and feel lovely against the skin.

Sleep on silk

I realise how extravagant this sounds, but hear me out. I first bought myself a silk pillowcases as a birthday present to myself a few years ago, and was never able to go back – so much so that I’ve gradually invested in a stack of them to ensure I always have a spare when the others are in the laundry basket. Here’s why you need one: 1) it feels gorgeous and you’ll feel a bit like a princess, 2) it’s better for your face, as it won’t tug at your skin the way a regular pillowcase does – which means you don’t get sleep-induced wrinkles and wake up with a creased face (I didn’t know this was a thing until I turned 35, but now these are the sort of things I consider…), and 3) it’s better for your hair as it doesn’t cause friction, which means less breakage and frizziness (I always forget how much better my hair is since making the switch until I stay somewhere without one and without fail wake up with unruly hair the next morning). I also use a silk scrunchy to tie my hair into a loose bun while I sleep, shower or workout (the silk prevents breakage and damage) and a silk eye mask to blockout morning light during the summer months or when I travel, and to protect the delicate skin around the eye area.

Create phone-free hours

There are countless studies which show just how badly screens – and specifically the blue light from our phones – interferes with the quality of our sleep. If you use your phone as your alarm, then try to at least set ‘do not disturb’ hours, set your phone to silent or airplane mode, and turn the screen to face down so that you’re not distracted by constant notifications flashing on the screen. For me the only thing that really works to ensure I don’t relapse and start scrolling, squinty-eyed, in bed (and then feeling too stressed or awake to actually fall asleep) is to put my phone in another room entirely. I plug it into my laptop in my office to charge overnight, and then don’t touch it until the morning once I’m properly awake and ready to start my day. I’ve been doing this for three months so far (after I spent the first two weeks of lockdown scrolling the news until 1am every night, and then waking up feeling terrible), and it has made an enormous different to both my quality of sleep and mood.

End the day with happy thoughts

I don’t know about you, but I have trouble switching off my thoughts and will often run through all the things I’m stressed or worrying about when I should be going to sleep. Now, I have a policy of starting and ending every day with ‘happy thoughts’; whether it’s something I’m looking forward to, something nice that happened recently, or three things I’m grateful for that day. I have to consciously remind myself to do it most days, but it always helps me start and end the day feeling more positive. And by interrupting my worried bedtime thoughts, I tend to have a more peaceful sleep (and less stressful dreams) too.

Add some soothing sounds

If you live somewhere noisy, or you just need a little extra help to drown out your own racing thoughts or soothe you to sleep, consider adding some white noise to your room. You can get a white noise machine, but we just use an app which works perfectly. My husband ‘DJs’ our soundtrack for the night on his phone (usually it’s either the sound of a crackling campfire or palm trees swaying in the breeze) and it’s literally the grownup equivalent of a lullaby.

Do you have an evening routine or any tips for creating a cosy + calming bedroom? To win a TEMPUR pillow of your own, please leave a comment below with your favourite tips for getting the best night’s sleep. Competition is open to UK residents only, and closes at midnight on the 10th July 2020. I will select one winner at random (winner will be notified via email within 48 hours). Good luck!

Love, Briony xx

Thank you to TEMPUR for sponsoring this post.