Sleep better at night with a morning routine

A morning routine can actually help you sleep better at night. This might sound a

little crazy but it’s true that what we do during the day determines how well we sleep

at night.

Part of the reason why sleep issues have become so common is because of our

modern lifestyle. We wake up to an alarm clock and then we go, go, go until it's time to

fall into bed at night. Our stress levels stay high all day long.

When your cortisol levels stay high all day, it’s harder for them to lower at night.

That’s why I recommend starting off your day at a lower stress level so that you aren’t

setting yourself up for being stressed all day long. (Of course, winding down with

a relaxing bedtime routine at night is also important.)

I got into a morning routine when I read Hal Elrod’s book The Miracle Morning a few

years ago and I’ve been doing it ever since. He recommends waking up early and going

through a routine which involves six steps. He focuses on personal development and

the purpose is to start your day off in a positive and motivating way.

In October of 2018, I committed to doing my Miracle Morning every day for 30 days.

It made such a difference in my stress levels, patience and outlook on life that I’ve

been doing it ever since!

Before I started this, I would literally wake up when I heard my infant son crying. Then I

would jump up out of bed and go get him. I started my day in a place of stress.

Instead, I started waking up a little bit earlier for my morning routine. Hal used to

recommend sacrificing sleep to wake up early which of course I disagree with (Hal has

changed his tune since getting cancer again).

It worked for me to go to bed by 10:00pm and wake up at 6:00/ 6:30am to get the sleep

I needed. Since my son woke up around 7:00/ 7:30am, I had thirty minutes to an hour to

myself to do my morning routine.

You can imagine the difference from jumping out of bed rushing to take care of my son

to having this time to myself to start my day. Then when he woke up, I was excited to

see him and felt calm and relaxed instead of stressed.

These are the 6 activities Hal recommends in The Miracle Morning that he made

into the acronym SAVERS:

S: silence or meditation

A: affirmations

V: visualization

E: exercise

R: reading

S: scribing or journaling

I've made my own version of the miracle morning routine. I do a lot of what Hal

recommends but I’ve adapted it to work for me. Now that my son is older and

he wakes up earlier for school, I get him off to school and then I do my morning routine

before I start working. I meditate for 10 minutes and then visualize my goals at the end.

Then I write in my gratitude journal and write my affirmation for the day. I self-coach

using the Model. I tend to exercise in the afternoon and read before bed. I do what

works for me.

Doing these things in the morning has literally changed my life. It's changed who I am:

I’ve become much more positive, I’m much more grateful and I'm much more motivated

to keep doing the work I’m doing. It's also made me feel less stressed during the day so

that I sleep better at night.

I tend to just do my morning routine on the weekdays. I don't always do it on the

weekends and there's sometimes on the weekdays when I don't get to do it. But I can

tell a big difference on the days I don’t do it so it keeps me motivated.

I hope that this motivates you to start your own morning routine. Taking just ten

minutes first thing in the morning to have this relaxing time and not checking your phone

immediately can make a difference. Keeping your stress levels low first thing in the

morning can really help you keep your cortisol levels lower throughout the day which

can help you sleep better at night.

One of my clients thought that implementing a morning routine made the biggest

difference in her sleep, more than anything else we did. So it works! Try it out and let

me know how it works for you.

And if all of this advice isn’t helping, there’s something deeper going on in your body that is keeping you awake. I can help you find out what it is and fix it so you can sleep better soon. Book a free consultation on Zoom to find out more.