If you are someone who tends to have trouble falling asleep at night, then you might want to mix up your showering routine. While it is the usual act to shower in the morning before work or before starting your day, have you considered showering at night in order to help you fall asleep? It has been shown that if you shower at night, it could lead to better sleep and help you fall asleep even faster than what you’re usually used to.
This doesn’t mean you can’t also shower in the morning, as morning showers tend to wake people up and get them prepared for the day, but including a shower right before bed will also bring in benefits that include falling asleep faster, staying asleep longer and keeping you in a more relaxed state, which is great for anyone who may suffer from anxiety or other issues that can promote insomnia and stress.
Keep You Cool
If you take a warm shower before bed, this will actually help keep you cooler for much longer at night. Since we need to feel more cool in order to fall asleep longer, a warm shower will actually help warm you up right away, so when you step out of the shower, your body will instantly start to cool down. The water left on your skin from the warm shower will quickly evaporate and you will be able to start to feel your body signaling your brain that it is soon time to fall asleep. This is a natural process that allows your body to feel sleepier and physically get ready for sleep.
This is also a great way to promote sleep for those who tend to be hot sleepers and wake up sweating in the night. A warm shower can help keep you cooler for a much longer period of time, so you won’t constantly be waking up in the night due to being too hot or sweaty. If you took a cold shower before bed, this could actually have an opposite effect and you could end up heating up way faster than taking a warm shower before bed. This is a great way to trick your body into cooling off and you won’t have to crank down the air conditioner so low, even on the hottest of summer nights.
Promotes Restful Sleep
Taking a shower before bed can actually help you get better rest. Showering before bed can help calm down your mind and quiet your brain for a little while. The water itself, in conjunction with your favorite types of shower products, such as body washes and body lotions, can definitely help you wind down your stress levels and help you get into a more relaxed state, which means a more restful sleep later on. Many people take showers before bed just because it helps get them to a more peaceful state of mind, and when you are at a more peaceful state, then finding sleep will be a much easier feat than just trying to go to sleep with no help.
Going to sleep after a relaxing shower can not only help you fall asleep faster, but it can help you stay asleep longer as your mind won’t be in hyperdrive and you can settle your thoughts quickly and easily. A warm shower is best, but even room temperature water can help wind you down for sleep. What you don’t want to do is take an ice-cold shower because this could be a jolt to your system and actually wake you up more and prevent you from falling asleep faster. This kind of shower could just keep you up and you’ll find yourself struggling to fall asleep. Save the colder showers in the morning to help wake you up and get you refreshed to start you new day.
Warm Shower is Key
As mentioned before, a warmer shower will help you get your mind at a more restful place. It’s just relaxing, and not only to your mind, but your body, as well. The warm water will help get you into a sleepier state as well as help soothe any sore muscles or aches and pains. Warm water just tends to be the best when it comes to muscle aches or joint issues, so it would make sense that taking a warm shower before bed will help with any kinds of ailments like muscle pain. If you’ve ever tried to fall asleep with joint or muscle pain, you know how painful it can be and how little sleep you can end up getting just due to pain alone. With a warmer shower, your muscles and joints will feel better and this will promote better sleep.
The act of showering in warmer water can also be relaxing as you can take some time to reflect on your day and put the day to an end. The warm water can help relax you, not only your aching body, but your mind as well. You will surely be able to find a more relaxing state of mind after a warm shower, as the warm water is both good for your body and good for your mental health, as well. Colder water can cause you to wake up too much, so make sure you are using warmer water when showering before bed.
Can Help with Emotional Disorders
If you are someone who battles stress, depression, anxiety, or any other kind of emotional issue, taking a shower before bed can really help you put your thoughts at rest. During a shower, the stress of the world outside is basically shut out, as all you need to worry about is your and your shower. Being in the shower is maybe even the one time you have to relax and be alone, away from family needing things or the demands or a stressful job, or both. Since a shower is already a ritual performed alone, you are already in that mindset that you will not be disrupted and can take some time just for yourself. Your mind will naturally be at peace, but there are plenty of things to try in the shower to help you come to a more restful state in the shower, such as meditating.
Meditating in the shower may seem silly if you’ve never tried it before, but it can become quite cathartic if you practice it enough. All you really need to do is focus on the sounds of the rushing warm water around you, and imagine your day virtually being washed away with the warm water. Your fears, worries and stress can go down the drain, right along with the water. If you visualize your day melting away in the warm water, you can be able to help your mind slow down and get ready for sleep. It only takes a few minutes to visualize a more restful state of being, so even if you have a very demanding life, give yourself at least 10 minutes in a warm, relaxing shower before bed to help yourself settle your thoughts. Over time, you will see what a benefit that these 10 minutes can be and how much happier you will feel each day. Of course, mediating is different for everyone, so even giving yourself just 10 quiet minutes in a shower can be so much help on its own.
Becomes Part of Your Routine
Whether you decide to try meditating in the shower or not, this time to yourself will become part of your bedtime routine and you will naturally start to feel sleepier after your shower. This is a great way to start a new routine, as our bodies grow accustomed to a regimented schedule. Even if you have a stressful day where you can’t plan out everything that happens, your rituals at night will become a path for you to take to a more restful state of mind. Doing the same thing every night and establishing a healthy before bed routine can do wonders for your sleep pattern and your overall mental health. While everything else during the day may be crazy and unpredictable, you will become used to and even look forward to the time in the shower where you can just focus on yourself and start to prepare to sleep.
You can easily make showering before bed a part of your nightly routine, which could include a skin care routine afterwards or even making a cup of relaxing tea and cozying up with a great book before bed. Once all the chores and needs of the day are done, having a good before bed ritual will help you settle yourself down and get you more relaxed. Once you are more relaxed, getting better sleep is a probable outcome and you can wake up so much better the next day, prepared to take on whatever life may throw at you that day.
Combining Aromatherapy
A super fun way of getting yourself in a more relaxing state of mind includes combining some aromatherapy at night in your shower. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy all different kinds of flowery scented body washes (unless that’s your thing, of course) but this just means that there are certain scents that can help calm you down, help you to destress, and actually help you fall asleep faster. Some of these scents include lavender, chamomile, eucalyptus, and spearmint. These scents can be incorporated into your shower by way of soaps, body washes, essential oils or even the actual plants. While body washes may be the most popular, there are so many essential oils that can be used either in a diffuser near the shower or combined with your favorite soap.
You can also just use natural elements, such as bunches of eucalyptus leaves and lavender that you tie in a bundle and hang from your shower head. This type of fresh bundle becomes activated from the steam of the warm shower, so the plant will naturally help you calm down with it’s activated scents. If you want something a bit stronger, then incorporating essential oils or scented soaps will help you breathe in all those natural calming scents that, in combination with the warm shower, will help you fall asleep so much faster and stay asleep so much longer. It’s a great way to calm the mind and prepare yourself to go to sleep without much struggle at all. Keeping essential oils going throughout your bedroom at night will also help you to continue getting all the healing properties of aromatherapy. Plus, they just smell so good, you’ll always want to be breathing in these healing scents!
Going to Bed Clean is Always Great
Showers are, in short, cleansing. They are cleansing to your body and if you use a shower to help you fall asleep before bed at night, they are also cleansing to your mind. Going to bed clean just feels good. One of the best feelings in the world is jumping into bed, freshly showered, with clean pajamas and clean bed sheets. Everything is so clean and smells great and you will find that your mind will also feel better and you’ll have less stress. You will no doubt fall asleep so much faster and you’ll be able to rest so much easier once everything is fresh and clean. You will wake up completely renewed and refreshed and ready to take on the brand-new day.
The physical part of this is that you won’t be bringing in any oils, dirt, or allergens into bed with you after showering before bed. This means your sheets and bed will stay a cleaner, healthier space and will promote your overall health. Especially if you are an allergy sufferer or having breathing issues, you’re going to want to make sure your bed is as clean and allergen free as possible. The world outside is a dirty place, but your home, and especially your bed, should be one of the cleanest spots within your house. The cleaner your bed is, the healthier you will feel and the more peace you’ll feel in your mind. All of this will promote how you sleep, and you will find that you can rest so much easier knowing that you are providing yourself the cleanest bed possible.
Help You to Disconnect
What’s great about showering before bed is that it forces you to disconnect, quite literally, from the world around you. You are physically unable to check your phone, or any kind of social media you may have, and you are also unable to watch TV to space out. When you are in a shower, it’s just you and the shower, so this helps you disconnect, and you’ll be able to find a more peaceful state of mind. This may be the only time you find yourself away from any kind of screen, so this is why making a shower before bed as part of your nighttime routine is so important. Disconnecting from all things electronic before bed will help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
There will be no outside distractions and you can calm your mind so much easier once it’s not plugged into a screen. You will find that there are so many benefits in disconnecting before bed, and a shower before bed could be the start of that. After the shower, try not to access your phone again in order to stay in a more relaxed state and fall asleep easier. You’ll be amazed at the benefits of disconnecting before bed, and while it may be a challenge at the start, once you get used to this new relaxation charged routine, you’ll be glad that you started it when you did.
The Wrap Up
As you can see, there are so many wonderful benefits to taking a shower before bed. Whether you need to shower before bed to help you relax, take it as some much needed alone time, or you just like going to bed super clean and ready for rest, you just can’t go wrong taking a shower before bed. If you are a morning shower person, you can still keep this routine as the start of your morning, but take some time and use this shower before bed routine as a way to embrace the night and get ready for sleep. While showers are fantastic to help you wake up in the morning, they are also super great for helping you unwind and fall asleep faster.
It’s really all a part of your routine and what works best for you. Over time, you will find out the smaller details, like what time at night is the best time for you to take your shower and what products you like to use to help you fall asleep faster. It’s all up to your personal preference, so there is no wrong way to incorporate your new shower before bed routine into your life. Mix it up and use a variety of sleep promoting products to incorporate with your shower in order to wake up more refreshed.
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