I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights

[Mini] Let's Build Your Nighttime Routine | Ep. 91

• Bridget Walton, Women's Hormone Coach • Episode 91

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Creating a consistent bedtime routine is essential for hormonal balance, especially when traveling or dealing with busy schedules. This mini-episode provides a step-by-step guide to building a nighttime ritual that grounds you and supports quality sleep no matter where you are.

• Reflect on your current routine and identify what works and what needs improvement
• Use technology strategically by setting up wind-down reminders and sleep mode on your phone
• Share your sleep goals with partners or roommates for better accountability
• Incorporate calming activities like stretching, tea, or skincare into your wind-down period
• Journal briefly to document tomorrow's priorities and meal plans
• Create three versions of your routine: dream version, realistic version, and bare minimum
• Consider writing your minimal routine on an index card to keep in your toiletry bag while traveling

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Speaker 1:

Hello, my friend, welcome to today's episode of I'm Hormonal. This is a mini episode where we just get straight to the point. This is a follow-up to the earlier longer form episode from Tuesday this week where I talked about sleep, and in this episode I really just want to focus on helping you build a good bedtime routine. This is definitely an episode where, if you can listen and have a journal out, have your notes app out, just otherwise be stationary, that will best serve you for this listening journaling experience. The reason why I wanted to talk about bedtime routines is because I know how important routine is really at all times of life, but also when you are traveling, when you are gone. So much just having a routine to help keep you feeling grounded so that you don't feel like you're having to restart every week when you get home or whatever it is for you and your travel cadence. I just think it's so important. It just helps me to feel so. Travel cadence I just think it's so important. It just helps me to feel so, so settled, and that's what I want for you too. So, even if you have a good bedtime routine that you just want to like upgrade a little bit, hey, let's work through that together. That's what we are up to today, and you can go back to the longer form episode to learn about what's going on hormonally while you're sleeping, but also really if you have a lack of sleep. What does going on hormonally while you're sleeping, but also really if you have a lack of sleep, what does that mean hormonally? And I talked through a bunch of recommendations for you.

Speaker 1:

Did I say this a minute ago? But I'm Bridget Walton, I'm your host surprise, I'm a women's hormone coach and I just want to say thanks so much for listening and especially if you are listening for the first time today, then welcome for the first time. If you've been here before, then I really appreciate you coming back, because I know you've got a lot of good options out there, so that is not lost on me. All right, let's go ahead and jump in. Think of okay, so sit down. Actually. Think of okay, so sit down, actually right, maybe you're on a walk.

Speaker 1:

Grab your journal or open up a new clean note on your phone that you can start taking notes in for this and I want you to think about. You can pause me if you need to, but just take a minute to reflect on. What is your current routine? If you have one? What do you normally do, maybe? How does your bedtime routine differ from if you're sleeping at your own home, if you're sleeping at, maybe, your partner's home, or if you are on the road for travel, or travel for fun or for work, whatever it is. So take a beat to just reflect on what are those things that you are consistent about that you like doing, or maybe make a note of something that is a part of your nighttime routine, but you're like maybe we can peel that out, I guess. Namely, I'm looking at you gals out there who are, who are scrolling on social media for an hour before bed, anyway, okay. So now come back to me once you've kind of thought through all of that and let's talk through a couple of things. So I'm going to walk through some suggestions kind of how I would build mine, what are the tools that I would use to make sure that I follow it and can, especially while I'm traveling for work they're outside or competing priorities, and then we'll really pull it all together at the end.

Speaker 1:

Now, the first thing that keeps me on track with my bedtime routine is using my phone to set a reminder, have it automatically go into sleep mode. If you have an iPhone, then you have this feature available on your phone. If you don't have an iPhone, I have to imagine that there's something similar on there for you and what you can do is tell it what time you want to go to bed, and you can also set a wind down reminder. So it'll say hey, bridge, you got to go to bed in 30 minutes. Start winding down. It will put your phone on. Do not disturb, release from mine, it does. You can also do this for specific apps.

Speaker 1:

If you do find that being on your phone or certain apps are really keeping you up, then what's the time that you want to start shutting all that stuff down and really thinking about okay, well, what time do you actually want to go to sleep at? Duh, this will vary depending on where you're at, what's going on the next morning, if you have to get up early or not, but you see what I mean. At least set something you can deviate from, but set something to work off of as your goal, all right. So now that we have the time that we want to get in bed, we have a couple of tools in place to reinforce getting to bed on time. And I should mention, too, if you have a partner, if you have a roommate, or you have a child maybe, and you want to say, hey, I want to get to bed by 9 30 pm. That's my goal. Of course, sharing that goal with a partner is going to make it much more likely for you to actually achieve that goal, and by partner in this case I mean, like with another person, right Accountability buddies.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so what do you want to do once it's time to wind down? Do you want to have a daily habit of drinking some sleepy time tea? Do you want to jump into your skincare routine? Brush and floss have you, especially for if you're out and about, you're traveling, if you've been in a car driving all day or you've been on a flight, do you want to spend five minutes to just stretch? What would be good for you and a good, calm way to wind down for the evening?

Speaker 1:

I myself am not a gal who journals particularly often. I like to take a lot of notes, I like to make a lot of plans and look ahead, but I wouldn't say that I journal regularly. I do think that there's great value, though, in spending some time to say, okay, what are my priorities for tomorrow, what's my to-do list for tomorrow morning, especially if I'm traveling for work, so I can maybe even just wake up with a bunch of other competing interests in my email inbox. But I know, okay, my top three priorities are do this quote, follow up with this customer and put together, you know, whatever is the third thing on your list to just really keep you focused. Oh, betty, my cat is here with me today. She seemed to really like that suggestion, if you heard her little tiny meow.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that is good to add to this nightly journaling routine would just be saying okay, what am I going to eat tomorrow? Now, this is something that I mean I do when I'm at home or when I'm away, just because if I leave my meals up to chance just last minute, it's not going to be. It's not going to be where it should be right. But especially while traveling and saying, okay, I'm going to be rushing from this meeting to that meeting, do I need to get up actually earlier than expected so I can stop by the grocery store or so I can make sure I have time to hit Chipotle or whatever it is. So that is something that I will definitely do, would love for you to do. If you are traveling for work and you're not sure yet where you're going to get your meals in between customer meetings. That will both help you to one feel like well, feel full and nourish, but it's also going to support your blood sugar levels for the day, right, and so that will keep your energy levels in good shape as well.

Speaker 1:

Take a second to pause me, if you haven't already, to reflect on some of the things I've mentioned so far, or anything else that comes to mind for you that you want to include in your nighttime routine. I think it could be a good idea to, or say you're driving, you want to pause me and do a voice to text text yourself with what is your dream nighttime routine. So this is a little bit different from what I was saying a second ago. You just looked through it to see what are the things that you want to incorporate Now.

Speaker 1:

Next, think about what is your dream routine. What would you ideally love to do every night before you go to sleep? For me, I would love to use my red light mask. Every single night, I would love to use what's the high frequency wand. You know, I would love to use that every night. That hasn't ever happened, you know. But what's on that list for you? What do you need to make sure that you pack? What do you need to make sure that you pack? What do you need to make sure that you bring? And at least you say okay, hey, here's the dream, here's the best case scenario.

Speaker 1:

Now, from there, you can pare it back a little bit to say what is your realistic nighttime routine, and then pare it back even a little bit more from there to say what is the bare minimum, what is the minimum number of steps here that I can accomplish before I go to bed. That will still help me to feel grounded and comfortable, even though I'm not in my own home, because I'm in a hotel. Because even if you are in your own home and you're just like, this is what helps me to really feel like I'm setting myself up for success. I'm setting aside this five minutes or one minute, or whatever it is for you, so that you can feel comfy and cozy in it. I would love for you to even write it out on an index card, something you can keep inside your toiletry bag for when you are on the go, because, again, I just I mean, tell me if you feel the same or tell me if you feel differently, but having routine and having this stability that recurs is just so good.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I hope that this has been helpful for you. I hope that you're enjoying reading before bed or listening to a sleepy time meditation whatever it is that best suits you. Share this with a friend, if they've been talking about needing to get into a routine of things, so they can use it as a guide too. All right, thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next one. If you loved today's episode and got something good out of it, make sure you subscribe so that these episodes show up automatically in your feed, no work needed on your side. Let's put it on autopilot. As always, I need to give you my reminder that the information I share with you here is for educational purposes only, and it should not be used as a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. Now, if you are, on the other hand, in the market for some one-on-one support, then I would love for you to take me up on my offer for a free strategy call. You can find these links and more in the show notes.