Are you looking for new self care ideas to take your self care night routine to the next level? Awesome because this blog post is all about creating a soothing self care night routine suited for your needs.
Having a self care night routine is crucial and plays a huge role in how you will feel in the morning. Creating a night self care routine isn’t that different from a morning routine but instead you are unwinding down and relaxing.
This blog post is all about starting a self care night routine and will give self care routine tips!
What is self care?
Self care is simply taking care of yourself. Self care looks different to each people and it’s personalized. Self care can be as simple as you washing your face in the morning or going out to a restaurant you’ve been wanting to go to for months.
How do you start a self care evening or night routine?
You can start a self care evening routine by setting time aside for your specific needs. Again, everyone’s definition of self care is different. So you’ll need to define what you need to do in the evenings and nights to have a fun yet doable self care routine. To get you started, here are some self care night routine ideas:
21 Self Care Night Routine Ideas
1. Set time aside for a self care night routine
One of the first self care routine tips that I have is to set time aside for your routine. It’s easier to do a morning self care routine because it’s at the beginning of the day and you don’t have much going on other than waking up. However, a night self care routine is hard, especially people like who love working or can’t stop a task once I started. You have to have a stopping point for whatever you’re doing. It’s okay to have 5-10 minutes in between your final task of the day and your self care night routine. But you HAVE TO MAKE THE TIME AND COMMIT. This is essentially setting a boundary with youself.
For example, I have a specific timer go off at night to remind me to slow down and get ready for bedtime.
2. Disconnect
You’ve probably already heard about this one. A lot of people say to stay off your phone 1-2 hours before going to bed for better rest. Your brain does a lot of data-processing and working when you’re on your device. Also the blue light also isn’t the best to look at right before bed.
I can confirm that this is true. When I’m not up, scrolling on my phone or re-reading something I wrote on my laptop, I sleep better.
Related: The Best 30 Day Social Media Detox Guide (+ Free Printable)
3. Have a specific bedtime
Rest is 100% productive. It’s part of our basic needs. Our society and also social media romanticizes the idea of staying up late and working beyond our breaking point. BUT we need to rest in order to do our best work.
But enough of my mini-rant. To make your self care night routine better, have a specific bedtime. If you don’t know where to start, then think about 1.) what time you need to be up in the morning and 2.) how many hours you need to sleep. I use [sleep calculator link] to measure when I should go to sleep and get enough sleep cycles.
4. Unwind
If your day wasn’t the best or you’re just exhausted, spend some time to simply unwind. Close your laptop, put down your phone, disable notifications. Sit back and take a few deep breaths.
5. Drink water
Your body won’t have water for several hours. It’s not fun to also wake up dehydrated. About an hour before settling down and sleeping, drink a glass of water. Also, make sure to not drink your water right before sleeping.
6. Eat food
You can have a snack or incorporate your dinner into your self care night routine. I personally do not like eating super late at night unless it’s a small snack or drinking water. However, if you happen to be hungry at night, you can find some meals or foods that fits your needs.
I know some people who absolutely can not eat anything before falling asleep because they may end up with either heart burn or acid reflux so be aware of that.
7. Stretch
Give your body some care with a few stretches or you can do a complete night yoga practice. There are so many nighttime or yoga for sleeping routines on YouTube. I’d recommend doing one that doesn’t involve a lot of complex or quick moves but instead a yoga practice that involves deep breathing and slower moves and simple poses.
Related: Beginner Yoga Equipment You Need Before Your First Yoga Class
8. Skincare
If you are wearing makeup, PLEASE remove it before going to bed. But you can also add in more self care regarding skincare. Whether that’s your daily skincare routine or a cute sheet mask, you can add it to your evening self care routine.
Related: 17 Beauty Self Care Ideas To Make You Feel and Look Better
9. Haircare
Hair care is an important step in my daily self-care night routine. After a long day, you’ll need to take care of your hair, such as washing it, detangling it, or moisturizing it.
10. Shower or Bathe
This is one of my top evening self care routine steps. Take a shower or take a relaxing self care bath. I’d recommend taking a look at this blog post about self care bath routines, if you have enough time to do a full on self care bath.
Related: Easily Create a Self Care Bath Routine with These 16 Bath Essentials
11. Brush your teeth
Okay, each month I find a new article or some discussion about how underestimated dental care is. Your teeth play a HUGE role in a ton of your organs’ function and can also warn about any ailments in your body. Brush your teeth, floss, and do whatever you need to keep them healthy.
12. Sit outside or take a quick walk
In our fast paced world, sometimes we need a few minutes to just sit and watch the sun set or hear the birds chirp. Or if you want to start your self care evening routine earlier, you can go out for a walk before it gets dark.
After work during the summer, my self care would be that I’d sit outside on our porch to just hear the bird chirp at each other. It was cool because at first I didn’t notice that they were communicating and was like “Why are they so loud and going back and forth?”
13. Journal
I don’t know what it is about journaling, but it lifts so much off of you. Journaling is one of my favorite self care activities (that I need to do more often). In the evening or before going to bed, you can journal about your day or even plan out your next day.
14. Catch up on your favorite shows
When you’re done with all of your work and ready to relax, you can always turn on the TV or your favorite streaming platform to watch a show you like.
I know during the winter/Christmas (aka right now) time, I’m always watching those cheesy Lifetime Christmas movies. I just love predicting what’s going to happen right and how the movie’s random negative plot twist happens 15-20 minutes before it ends. LOL
15. Get cozy
Do you have your warmest blanket around? Or your softest pajamas on? Then get cozy and comfortable for your self care night routine.
16. Read a book
One thing that is part of my self care night routine is reading a book. I honestly wake up feeling better when I read versus when I stare at my phone at YouTube videos. At one point, I was so consistent with reading at night, I’d plan about an hour to just read and loved it.
17. Plan out tomorrow’s outfits
If you are like anything like me, I need to actually plan my outfits out at night because it eats up so much time in the morning. Prepare or get an idea of your outfit for the next day as part of your self care routine.
18. Drink tea (that’s decaf or meant for relaxing or sleep)
Drinking tea is a soothing self care activity that you can add into your evening self care routine. However, avoid any tea that is caffeinated like black tea. There are teas out there that are made for sleeping and relaxing.
Unless you want to go to sleep at two AM in the morning or twisting and turning full of energy all night, DO NOT drink strong black tea at nine o’clock of night. Trust me I learned. I did that a few weeks ago and still regret doing it.
19. Charge your electronics.
Want to make it easier to stay off your phone or laptop, put them far away on a desk or end table and charge overnight. Charging your electronics at night will make your life easier. This a habit that I learned way back in high school and having to carry laptops around all day and needed the battery to last all day.
20. Put on soothing music
Throughout college, I’d need to have rain or ocean waves playing in the background in order to sleep. There are so many videos out there with rain playing for sleeping that you can use.
21. Adjust your temperature and bedding
The final self care night routine idea that you can do is to adjust your temperature before going to sleep or changing your sheets around. If you sweat at night, maybe use cooling sheets like this or change your pillow cases with a cleaner pair every week. Make sure your bed is perfect for you!
This blog post was all about creating self care night routine.
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