Interview: “Bedtime Routines: Not Just For Babies”
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Bedtime routines. When they come to our children, they are the best part of the day, and the worst part of the day. With children, we are near religious about bedtime routines, almost fearing that swaying one bit from the nightly ritual will leave you with a night from hell.
However, when it comes to our own bedtime routine as adults, most of us do not have one. Unless you count a bedtime routine as slugging back a glass of wine, binge watching Netflix and brushing your teeth before you fall into bed to scroll Instagram for another hour or two.
I know that we’re adults, and we don’t feel like we should need to have a bedtime routine…but maybe we need it even more than our kids.
Think about it. Think about the amount of responsibility and stress that we encounter on a daily basis. Imagine the amount of thoughts that run through our head each and every hour of every day. And then we expect our mind to just shut off and sleep a deep, restful slumber?!
Say what now?
We can’t lean on wine and social media to lull us into a state of optimal sleep. Sleep is just too important.
Without sleep, we die. But even without GOOD sleep we don’t show up fully each and every day. We aren’t the best version of ourselves for those we love and care about. We aren’t as productive. When we are sleep deprived we gain more weight. And to put it blunt, without sleep, I know I can be a grumpy a-hole, how about you?
Sleep is that important. Having a bedtime routine is the optimal self-care. So check out my interview with Bethany Zell on “Bedtime Routines: Not Just For Babies” (ps: isn’t her title perfect?!)
*Fun side note: literally two minutes before this interview went live, I gave my two oldest kiddos a snack and told them that mommy was doing an interview on the computer and for them to play outside. Once I opened the door back up, that’s how they would know I was all done.
I shit you not, as soon as that little red “live” button turned on, Ayla started screaming outside. I went to get her and both kiddos threw a temper tantrum screaming that they wanted to come inside. So inside they came…
Thankfully I had notes, or else I wouldn’t have been able to talk at all. My ability to hold my thought was at half mast at best here, but I feel pretty good about the fact that I was able to hold ANY thought with the kiddos screaming in the background.
At one point, as my 5-year-old was bouncing up and down on the rebounder in our living room, he yelled “are we being good mommy?!”. The look on his face led me to believe he really thought they were being great…
But all in all, I was super grateful to get to do this interview with Bethany, and she was so sweet and patient.*
Action step: choose 2-3 self-care items for your nightly bedtime routine. Do them consistently.
I would love to hear what your go-to bedtime rituals are in the comments below!
Read also:
- A Successful Morning Starts the Night Before: Set Yourself Up For a Good Night Sleep
- 12 Free Acts of Self-Care for the Overwhelmed Mom
- What is a Joy Equation? And Why You Need One…!
