I wrote previously about my morning bed time routine and many people asked me, why would I get ready for bed in the morning?
Essentially we’re getting ready to sleep from the moment we wake up each morning.
One of the most important things you can do for your night time routine (to set your circadian rhythm) is to watch the sunrise, EVERY MORNING.
This is an absolute requirement because there are frequencies and specific wavelengths in the sun (visible light, ultraviolet B, ultraviolet c, IR, red light and blue light) that turn on cortisol that help to wake you up and reduce the secretion of melatonin in the morning.
If you’re feeling groggy in the morning, go outside when the sun is rising on the horizon, get grounded and look in the direction of the sun for at least 30 seconds up to 20 or 30 minutes.
Usually I’ll do this for about 5 minutes up to 30 minutes. I’ll pet my dogs, check my fruit trees or garden and while I’m doing that I’ll stop every few minutes and look in the direction of the sun for 20 or 30 seconds. I don’t stare at the sun I look in the direction of the sun, while exposing as much skin as possible. In the summer my shirt is off.
The other thing morning sun does for us is to help your body produce hormones. You see melatonin is a hormone that is made during the daytime (if you’re exposed to natural sunlight) and then stored. When your mitochondria senses darkness, that previously stored melatonin that you created during the day, slowly starts getting released into your bloodstream.
This cascade of hormone release is intricately tied to the light we’re exposed to and our natural environment.
So the first thing I do for my “night time routine” is making sure I get proper UVA sunlight in the morning.
There are many things that I do from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep that I’ve written about before. Maybe I need to do one article where I list them all. I’ll consider doing that.
I wrote an entire article about how to turn your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary so maybe I’ll do one article going through all the things you should do and not do during the day that will help you fall sleep quickly at night.
With that in mind I’m going to skip the time of day from sunrise to sunset. This article is going to be focused on the exact night time routine I use to fall asleep easily at night starting when the sun sets.
What I Do When The Sun Sets
When the sun sets the first thing I do is to make sure I’m outside for it. It doesn’t matter if I can see it or not. My mitochondria in my trillions of cells senses it. This is very very powerful and cannot be overstated.
There’s a “crescendo” that happens in terms of light when the sun goes down.
This crescendo only occurs twice per day, during sunrise and sunset. When the sun is setting, the color temperature is roughly between 1,200 to 1,500 kelvin depending on your location and time of year.
Right at the time the last bit of sun dips down under the horizon, the color temperature (in about one second) goes from 1,200 kelvin to zero. Many people claim to see a green flash when that happens. I’ve never really seen that before.
But I believe something magical happens at this time that we cannot feel or measure. I believe this magical effect is magnified if you’re grounding to the earth receiving free electrons.
As I write this on August 14th 2024 the sun is setting here in Southern California at about 7:37pm. When it gets to be an hour or so before sunset, I’ll put an alarm on my phone that goes off about 5 minutes before to give me enough time to get outside and into nature to experience this magical light crescendo.
I’m literally only outside for about a minute. But the important thing is that I’m connected to nature at the two most important times of the day, the sunrise and the sunset.
If I’m working at the time when sunset happens (in the Winter here it’s around 4:45pm) I’ll make sure to change my computer settings to zero blue light BEFORE my alarm goes off and I go outside to experience the sunset.
This is so that when I come back from being outside and I look at my computer screen I’m not getting blasted by any blue light. Blue light after sunset is a recipe for insomnia and cancer.
Generally I’m working to about 6pm or so. When the sunsets I’ll take a quick 2 minute break and get outside for it. Again it doesn’t matter if you can see the sunset. What matters is that you’re connected to nature by being grounded to the earth and your body is outside when the sunset happens.
It sounds strange but there’s magic to it. Do this for 30 days along with watching the sunrise each morning and you will notice PROFOUND changes to your sleep.
When I go back to work in my office, my computer is now set to zero kelvin and I take off my yellow blue blocking glasses and put on my orange glasses. Keep in mind, I do not let one photon of light enter into my eyes (after sunset) unless it is filtered first.
You can filter the light by investing in circadian lighting like we have and/or (we’re in the “and” category) wearing blue light blocking glasses. Like I said, we do both because I’m meticulous when it comes to sleep and to the light that I’m exposed to.
Plus it takes no real effort to wear blue blockers for a couple of hours before bed. 😉
Leading Up To Bedtime
I do my best to avoid eating after the sunsets. But this is difficult when the sun sets at 4:45 in December. When it’s that time of year, I try to eat dinner early but it doesn’t always happen before sunset. I try though.
I’ve noticed that when I don’t eat any food after sunset, I sleep deeper and have more REM sleep. I tend to fall asleep faster and wake up feeling more refreshed and energized.
If I can I’ll try to get 16 hours per day with not eating any food at all. This is called intermittent fasting and not only is it helpful for a phases of our sleep cycles but it’s also great to turn on autophagy and help the body heal and restore its tissues.
During sleep, you want your body to use its energy to heal and create new healthy cells, not digest food. Digestion requires more energy than any other biological process.
The last thing you want to be doing when you’re sleeping is spending its much needed energy (that would normally work on healing you) digesting a late meal.
If I have anything I’ll usually have some supplements before bed like iodine and nattokinase and my “midnight bedtime snack“.
The idea behind not eating after sunset are conveyed in two really important books. The first one is called The Daylight Diet and the other one (my favorite of the two) is called Yes, No, Maybe Chronobiotic Nutrition.
At this time of the night, I’m wearing my orange blue blocking glasses and helping my wife Kate put our twin boys to bed. They’re currently 6 years old (twins). This is an entire routine that that takes about an hour or so.
Fun fact: It took about 5 weeks for them to start sleeping a minimum of 10 hours per night. This was when they were taking 2 naps per day. We thought that after they stopped napping, they’d sleep less or wake up in the middle of the night. They’re 6 now and last night Will slept for 11 hours and 20 minutes and Ben slept for 10 hours 45 minutes.
I believe it has a lot to do with all the different things we’re doing to help facilitate healthy sleep patterns.
After they go to bed which is around 7:45 or 8:00pm (in the Summer it’s more difficult for us to keep to an earlier sleep schedule, that changes in the Winter though) I’ll take 50mg of melatonin and put on my red glasses. If you’ve tried melatonin and it hasn’t worked, I suggest you read this article that answers why.
The red glasses block 100% of all blue light, green light and yellow light. I put these on about 2 to 3 hours before bed, depending on the season.
The reason I take melatonin at the same time as putting on my glasses is because naturally your body starts to secrete the stored melatonin (that you made during the daylight by being outside and watching the sunrise) when it senses darkness. The red glasses block all blue light which mimics darkness to my body.
Keep in mind, that all the lights in our house are also red. It’s important to note that even light that hits your skin, can cause circadian mismatches. This is because your skin has photoreceptors on it called opsin.
These photoreceptors detect the color, wavelength, kelvin and frequency of light that your body is exposed to. It then sends these signals through biophotons to your suprachiasmatic nucleus (your body’s master clock that control all circadian timing mechanisms in every cell of your body) to react accordingly (suppress melatonin).
In an ideal world, we would have no light after sunset. But if we have to have any light after sunset, red light is the only color of light I recommend.
After the kids are sleeping I’ll do the dishes, spend a few minutes with my wife catching up and then get ready for bed. This usually includes a magnesium bath that also has boron and baking soda in it.
Then after soaking in the warm bath for 20 to 30 minutes (with red lights in my bathroom of course) I’ll do some light stretching and breathing exercises for about 10 minutes.
Then I’ll take my healthy midnight snack along with supplements like nattokinase, charcoal, iodine and a half ounce shot of Intramax.
I’ll let the dogs out to pee and then get in bed. Usually I’ll read a book for 10 minutes using a special book light that will not suppress melatonin. I’ll still have my red glasses on the entire time. After I shut off my book light I’ll turn over in bed.
My eyes are always closed as I take off my red glasses. I’ll put the red glasses on my nightstand and replace them with my sleep mask (with my eyes closed).
99% of the time I can barely keep awake and I fall asleep in about 5 minutes. If that’s not the case I might try some breathing exercises or mental exercises to help my mind focus before bed. Generally I do both.
But I only do one of those or the other if I cannot fall asleep, which is rare.
So that’s my exact night time routine for sleep.
I hope it helps you!
Conclusion
I know we’re all different and have different situations so you may not be able to outfit your entire house with circadian lighting like we have. I get that. But do what you can. If you can invest in 3 pairs of blue blocking glasses, then put that high up on your priority list. If you’re exposed to LED or fluorescent bulbs before bed, just make sure you’re wearing your blue blockers and covering as much skin as possible after sunset.
Questions:
- What is your night time routine for sleep?
- Do you stick to it or does it change often?
- Have you noticed any difference either way?
Comment below!
