I Just Had the Best Sleep of My Entire Life—I Credit These 5 Products

Sleep and I are a lot like cereal and orange juice. Historically speaking, we just don’t mix. No matter how many times I’ve made attempts to be an “early to bed, early to rise” human, I tend to be the type who tosses, turns, and ends up succumbing to blue light at 2 a.m. in an attempt to distract myself from the fact that morning will soon be approaching. Because I’m not a quitter and because I’ve truly been feeling the woes of lack of sleep, I loaded up on sleep products over the past month, and dare I say it: I just woke up from the best sleep of my entire life.

I’ve dabbled with a sleep mask here and there in the past, but this time around, I really committed and went all out in the name of creating a nighttime ritual that worked for me. From a sleep supplement to a humidifier to a sound machine and beyond, my bedroom is an oasis, and I can finally say: I have my sleep routine on lock. Here are my five holy-grail products that have helped me fall asleep, stay asleep, and be annoyingly chipper over the past few weeks:

1. A sleep supplement with melatonin and vitamin B6

The perfect nightcap exists, and the Beauty zzZz formula from HUM is it. I’m not sure why I’ve never gone out of my way to try a sleep supplement (looking back, it definitely feels like a facepalm situation, but I digress), but this stuff seriously works. There’s something about the combination of melatonin and vitamin B6 that helps me fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling well-rested, which is truly something I don’t think I’ve been able to say since I was in the womb.

I like to take one tablet of the Beauty zzZz formula one hour before bed, set my alarm for the next day, and then lull myself to sleep with an intriguing but not-too-intense read. After about a half hour, I start to find myself feeling zen AF, and then at the 45-minute mark, I’m nodding off mid-sentence and into a seriously good slumber that I can’t stop talking about. Falling asleep was definitely my main concern, but I’d be remiss not to mention that once I’m asleep, this supplement helps me stay asleep. You heard me: no tossing, turning, or staring at the clock as it quickly approaches wake-up time. If there’s one sleep product worth investing in, it’s this stuff.

2. A white noise machine

When I was younger, my family used to be neurotic about having fans on to help block out noise during sleep. It was definitely a comfort thing that I weaned myself off of with age—mostly because traveling back and forth from college with a huge box fan was annoying as hell. I never really thought I needed anything like it until I moved into a new apartment in January that sits adjacent to Chicago’s Brown Line.

Every 15 minutes, the train comes through, and if I’m not in a super deep sleep, it definitely wakes me up. While a bit annoying, it was definitely a push to get a more legit, small-space-friendly white noise machine, and I can’t get enough of this one from Amazon. It does an incredible job drowning out outside noise and helps keep those pesky little middle-of-the-night noises from waking me up.

3. A cooling duvet cover

I don’t know if it’s hormones or what, but in the last few years of my life as a 20-something, I am always sweating. I started setting my bedroom temperature to 65 degrees overnight, which definitely helped a bit, but I’d still often find myself having to peek out my feet and hang them over the side of my bed to help cool off. If there is one thing that I can count on to wake me up from a deep slumber overnight, it’s the uncomfortably annoying feeling that my body is engulfed in flames. Not a fan.

I came across this cooling comforter from Buffy, which is a lot cooler and more lightweight than the previous one my boyfriend and I had, and now that I’m able to enjoy a night of sleep without waking up drenched in sweat, I’m never, ever turning back.

4. A Kindle

OK, so as sleep experts would likely tell you, a Kindle still emits some light. But in comparison to my iPhone drowning me in blue light late at night as I scroll for hours on TikTok, trust me: Reading from my Kindle instead of scrolling on my phone is a major sleep routine upgrade. I started reading from a Kindle a few months ago, and over the past few weeks, I’ve been a lot more consistent about reading it before bed as I wait for my Beauty zzZz sleep supplement to kick in. I turn the brightness down pretty much all the way, turn on a dim lamp in the background, and opt for reads that are rather light and free of cliffhangers so that I can easily slip into sleep if it comes my way. 

In addition to reducing blue light before bed, this also serves as a welcome distraction that helps me keep my mind off of the ruminating thoughts and anxiety that I tend to fall victim to right before sleep time. The combination of my melatonin + B6 and reading really sets my mind and body up for success when it comes to winding down, and I am loving every minute of it.

5. A cool-mist humidifier

Next to feeling like my skin is literally on fire in the middle of the night, there’s one other ailment that’s sure to wake me up from a dead sleep against my will: a good ole tickle in the throat courtesy of my dry AF apartment. Over this past winter, I’ve definitely been noticing that my hair, skin, humor, etc. are drier than usual, but truly, the one thing that made me pull out the humidifier was the fact that I kept waking up with a dry cough that required me to thrust myself into a panic-driven alertness, drink water like my life depended on it, recover from the drama, and attempt to lull myself back to sleep. The added moisture in the air is much appreciated and has made my routine middle-of-the-night coughing fits a thing of the past.

This post contains a sponsored inclusion of Hum Nutrition but all of the opinions within are those of The Everygirl editorial board.

Source: http://theeverygirl.com/category/wellness/feed