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Finding the perfect self-care routine can be such a hassle. Now, finding that perfect nighttime routine for self-care is a different beast altogether.
I often struggled with finding an evening routine that worked for me. Every night, I would complete a different routine and that would make my days feel somewhat frazzled. The only time I was able to keep a steady routine was when I was in elementary school or high school.
Thanks to my parents, they had more control over how my evening routine looked like every night. After school, I would come home, do my homework before six, eat dinner at six, watch some television, be on my phone for a little bit, take a shower, pick out my clothes for the next school day, and then go to bed.
Man, those were simpler times. Now as an adult, being in charge of my own self-care night time routine is not as smooth as I thought it would be. However, with a little bit of experimenting and seeing what works, I think I found the best evening wind down routine perfect just for me.
Table of Contents
My Nightly Self-Care Routine
Compiling a list of self-care ideas to do at night, takes a lot of trial and error to get it just right. There are some things you look forward to doing and other things you might not enjoy so much. For me, a simple night routine begins after you get home from a long day’s work and you’re just about to make dinner.
Make Dinner With Calming Music
After a day’s work, I’m sure the last thing you want to do is make dinner lol. But for me, there is something very therapeutic about cooking — especially when you’re making your favorite meal. My favorite meal to cook for dinner is a nice plate of spaghetti and pasta sauce filled with luscious meatballs and cheese. I love cheese.
There’s something very warm and cozy about eating a hot plate of spaghetti and meatballs. While cooking, I like to relax with some jazz music or Christian music; definitely something that soothes the soul. When you hate cooking, as soon as you turn on some music to relax — it’ll definitely get you into the mood of cooking.
Catch up on your Favorite Show
Once dinner is made, I like to eat and unwind in front of the television. Thanks to various streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, there is a lot of great tv to watch.
So far on Netflix, I like watching The Office, The Blacklist, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad. On Hulu, I’m such a sucker for Bob’s Burgers and I watch it all the time. I just can’t stop watching it. I love the aesthetics of the show and the different personalities of the characters — their humor just tickles my fancy.
Tea Time
There’s something very sacred, relaxing, and calming about drinking tea. I just can’t explain it. Tea is perfect for daily self-care: morning, day, or night. I would highly recommend that you get a decaffeinated tea that’s perfect for night time so that you can still go to bed without any problems.
Out of many self-care ideas, I think having a little tea time is not negotiable for my night time routine checklist. Every night, I look forward to sippin on some of that greenery tea goodness.
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Clean & Tidy up a Bit
After some time drinking, eating, and watching TV, I like to wash dishes, sweep the floors, clean the tables, or do other little chores around the house. I know, I’m so weird — but something about cleaning really calms and relaxes my spirit.
In my room, I tidy up by creating a self care space that’s my oasis from all the outside noise. This calming space includes dim lighting, completing a self-care activity, and listening to an empowering podcast or a powerful sermon in the background.
Wash Your Face & Shower
Once the cleaning is done, I head over to the bathroom to shower and wash my face from the long day. For showers, I love using the Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash to deeply penetrate inside my skin and lock in the moisture.
My nighttime routine for washing my face includes the Aveeno Clear Complexion Daily Facial Cleansing Pads, Clean & Clear Deep Cleaning Toner, Cotton Rounds, and the Aveeno Clear Complexion Daily Moisturizer.
Read More: 25 Amazing Drugstore Self-Care Products You Need to Own
Wear Comfortable Clothes
After showering and washing my face, I like to jump into some comfy pajamas, cozy footwear or socks, and set out my clothes for the next day. Setting out my clothes, saves me lots of time and energy I know I won’t have for the morning.
As it stands, I’m already not a morning person, so if I can make things a little bit easier for me the night before, I’ll do that. I usually pick out my favorite colors and clothes that fit my day and personality.
I look forward to this nightly self-care activity because it gives me a chance to focus and enjoy the moments of styling different outfits together.
If you’re looking for some helpful tips on improving your wardrobe style, here are 5 Major Tips on How to Dress Better.
Cater Yourself
At this stage of the routine, everything I do from here on out is all about catering to me. Whether that’s doing my hair, painting my nails, or reading positive affirmations to myself, I want to take care of myself and just step away from the outside world for a second.
Other self care ideas could be online shopping (proceed with caution on this one lol), singing/playing music, or listening to that album you’ve been wanting to listen to for a while.
Social Media Detox
After the cateration, I like to completely stay away from social media for the rest of the night. My brain needs a mental break from the outside world and its craziness. I don’t want to divert and risk putting negative energy will work me up before going to bed.
Instead of social media, I like to talk with my family and catch up on life or the day’s events. Sometimes, we’ll have nightly devotions and talk about lighthearted topics before going to bed. For my peace of mind, I am also getting into the habit of telling my family that I love them before heading to bed.
Write in a Gratitude Journal
On any sacred self-care regimen, writing in journals is very necessary in keeping your mental health in check and for releasing your fears and burdens away. Just recently, I got myself a manifestation and gratitude journal that I write in every day.
In it, I express how thankful I am for all of my blessings and my manifestations of things yet to come. I also have a separate journal for my mental and emotional health discussing certain issues I’ve dealt with in the past and how that makes me feel. Writing things out has been so helpful in clearing my mind and heart of harbored feelings deep inside my spirit.
Meditate & Clear Your Mind
Finally, my favorite self-care activity before bed is here. I recently just implemented a meditation routine into my daily self-care routine. I started this as one of my many self-care ideas while quarantined and now it has been added to the list of things I do on the daily to get rid of stress and anxiety.
When my anxiety arises, I like to meditate to this video and the anxieties immediately wash away. This meditation for anxiety offers much-needed relief and reprograms your mind while you are sleeping. I like to leave the video playing while I’m awake and then I peacefully fall asleep to it.
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What Should my Night Routine Be?
The key to having the best night time routine is to figure out what works best for YOU. As you can see from the list, the nightly routine that I have took a while for it to work for me. If you don’t like something you do at night, right now you don’t have to include it in your nightly routine. Instead, figure out what you enjoy doing and include that into your evening routine so that it can be a success.
Next, create a night routine list and try to stick to it every night. On the list, come up with tons of self-care night ideas that you like to do and throughout a test week, figure out which ones you like to do the most and stick to that routine, the week after.
For a self-care night routine to work, it takes a lot of consistency in your self-care regimen. Please don’t waste your time creating a list, try it for a little while and then step away from it. You have to continuously do these self-care activities every night for them to take shape in your life.
To help you create your own simple night time routine, here’s my self-care night checklist for inspiration:
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Now Let’s Discuss:
Do you even believe in a self-care night routine? Why or why not?
What does your self-care checklist include?
Please let me know down in the comments below.
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Very useful post! I could probably benefit from jotting down my self-care night routine. I wish cleaning was relaxing for me lol. And I can definitely practice on 100% unplugging at night from social media. Thank you for sharing!
Haha i know, I’m so weird with the cleaning thing! When I was little, I hated doing chores and now, it’s like one of those things that just calms me down. Yea, social media is scary now that its becoming a part of our normality as humans with technology. There are days where I just want to go away and not have to depend on my phone or any technological devices xxx
Great list, my favourite is the tea!! I agree 100%, tea has a magic power that cannot be explained. Lol! Thanks for this post!
Thank you so much!! Yesss I love tea !! I recently got put on the salted caramel tea train so I am super obsessed with that lol xxx
The list of routine sounds great! Thank you for your sharing. Have you heard about coffee meditation? It’s a kind of meditation that when you’re on your bed at night, thinking about all the good things you’re doing for people, which makes you feel good about yourself 🙂
wow, that is really interesting! No, I have never heard of coffee meditation!! I will definitely look into that!! I feel like there are so many forms of meditation that I’m still yet to discover. thanks for putting me on xxx
Absolutely love this, self care is so important! I love the journal idea, I actually use a positivity journal myself!
Thank you so much!! There’s just something about journaling that changes your outlook on what you’re going through. Thanks for stopping by xxx
I love that you make time to cater to yourself and stay off of social media each night. Those are such great habits to start. I feel like it really helps you wind down and sleep well too.
Yesss and sleep is very important! When my mind is busy racing thinking about what I saw on social media, it does more damage than good, I found out xxx
Lovely ideas here … Like you, I like to take time to cook dinner and sit and eat it thoughtfully. Comfortable clothes – yes a must. Recently, my husband and I have chosen to sleep under the stars. We had planned to do it for one night. Two weeks later we are still sleeping out there. It makes for a beautiful wind-down routine. Just looking into the eternal expanse. A lovely way to wake up too.
Exactlyyyy, I like to taste and really enjoy what is touching my tastebuds. Lol that sounds so weird, but you get it haha. Oooh sleeping under stars sounds so relaxing and calming! Oh wow I’m definitely adding that to the list of hobbies I want to try xxx
Unplogging from social is 100% part of my self care. I never thought to create a self care routine but I for sure will now.
Yesss, definitely do! It’s awesome! I almost feel like the entire world would benefit from unplugging from social media for a while lol xxx
This has been like a light going on for me! I never considered self-care itself having a routine/time specific benefits. And I absolutely can get on board with the tidying up a bit at night or even before sleep — this makes so much sense to me. I am going to do it as I can see this being so beneficial. Thank you so much for sharing!
Aw that is awesome to hear! I definitely wanted to share my routine in hopes that people can create a routine that works for them. It makes me so happy that this was somewhat helpful!! xxx
A hot drink is a must for me in the evening. Either a tea or sometimes a hot choc! Working on reducing my social media and have seen such a difference with putting my phone down early! X
Right?!! A hot drink just calms everything down and takes you into a zen mode. yess, it’s wild how you notice the difference staying away from social media can do for your mental. When I first did it, it took me a while for me to get used to it, but now I look forward to it xxx
Nice list for your routine. I specifically like meditating and clearing your mind. It’s something I do every time.
Thank you so much!! Meditating and clearing the mind is so important for your mental, especially when you work on reprogramming it to think positive thoughts. Thanks for stopping by xxx
This is so helpful and a great list! I definitely need to try to social media detox! I’ll try to put these ideas into action. 🙂
Thank you!! Yess, a social media detox is everything especially when you do it consistently xxx
I had no idea I was doing self-care night routine by putting in place certain things 😁 I cook and clean to music and always put up an evening family movie or tv show to watch with the family as we dine. I find the bonding refreshing. On my checklist before dinner also is a shower.
Thanks for this post😍
lol I love that your routine is a regular activity that you do every night. That is such a great idea, I love family movies with the family while eating. I may bring up that idea to them next time xxx
Yes Josie, I swear, you always have the best blog post ideas! This is so calming to read and full of great ideas, especially love the social media detox! You should check out Brooklyn Nine Nine if you’re looking for more shows, we can fangirl about it together 😉
Aw yayyy that is awesome to hear! Thank you sis 💕!! I might have to write an article just on social media detox lol. Ooh adding that show to the list of shows I gotta check out xxx
It is so important to have a night routine, but adding some self-care elements to it makes it even better. I love all of the different activities you do. Writing in a gratitude journal makes a whole difference! You get to reflect and get things off your mind. Your future self will enjoy reading the entries. I found tea time being great, but extra important to take the decaf option. Thanks for sharing your routine!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
Righttt?!! I can’t sing the praises of writing in a gratitude journal enough! It is so moving and puts all of your blessings upfront so you can truly be aware of what you should be grateful for. Thank you so much for stopping by xxx
This sounds like a great routine to help sleep well at night and really looks after yourself.
Thank you for sharing. Great checklist too!
Lauren http://www.bournemouthgirl.com
Thank you so much sis! That means a lot! Yes, the routine has gotten my sleep patterns in check like never before lol. Thank you for stopping by xxx