Our gorgeous Meg Mansell is counting down to the birth of her second child (her little pal for her and husband Guy’s toddler, Daisy), she’s been thinking a lot about a sleep routine – her own sleep routine!
Welcome to Am I The Only One with Meg Mansell, our new regular Capsule columnist. Meg is one of our favourite members of the Capsule community, bringing us smart, warm and thoughtful pieces on mental health, body positivity, motherhood and more. This month, Meg writes about the bittersweet joy of having a long-distance best friend and how physical distance is no match for the emotional power of friendship.
I don’t know if it happened overnight or if it was a slow change, but I am officially at the stage in my life that there is now very little that genuinely sounds better than a good night’s sleep.
Doesn’t that just make your skin tingle?
Is it just me or do you also feel a little smile form at the corners of your mouth when you read the words: ‘Eight hours of uninterrupted good quality sleep’?
There’s just nothing that can top it for me.
So much so, that I have become a sleep routine expert and refining it to perfection has become my happy place.
Right. I’m assuming you’re now dying to know what it consists of – so in an ideal world, my bedtime wind down goes like this:
Earlier in the day pre planning and putting on a set of fresh crisp sheets. Then we move into a VERY hot shower with a good sleepy themed body wash into a full 5-step skin care routine. Next I’m smothering myself in an oil or lotion, top to toe. Preferably one with magnesium in it on my feet. Maybe a spritz of a lavender spray to finish. My favourite candle is burning alongside my salt lamp. I put on comfy pajamas, a highly moisturizing lip balm and I’ve got a cup of peppermint tea next to my bed. My Alexa is playing ‘ rain on a window’ sound effects. To finish – I’m in a really good part of whatever book I’m reading.
Truly if you could see me right now, I’m basically salivating reading that back.
I remember one time my Mum said to me that she hasn’t slept well since my brother was born, 37 years ago. As dramatic as that sounds – she’s not alone.
According to studies, our sleep quality starts diminishing in our late twenties to 30’s and there’s not much we can do about it, ESPECIALLY – if you are a woman (sorry).
Actually, you know what? If you are feeling particularly exhausted, maybe skip these next couple of sentences. Because it’s been found that more than half of women ages 25-44 with children get less than seven hours of sleep per night, compared to 38% of men.
Nearly a quarter of women ages 18-24 lose sleep due to PMS, plus more than half of women ages 45-54 lose sleep due to perimenopause or menopause.
To top it all off, women actually NEED more sleep than men to function on the same cognitive levels throughout the day.
So while we need more, we scientifically get less. Wonderful.
It’s not surprising to hear then that the sleep health industry has year on year been reaching new heights when it comes to its profits worldwide. It’s now worth 70 billion USD and looking to reach into the hundreds of billions by the year 2030.
At every corner you see, there are new ways companies are trying to profit off of this lust of ours for a good night’s sleep. The beauty industry has the most obvious with sleep masks, lavender scented balms and sprays, pillowcases.
Endless supplies of supplements are available with Kourtney Kardashian cashing in and releasing the sell out product Lemme Sleep gummies which will set you back $50 for a 2 months supply.
Here is NZ, Milo the drink has even released a new version of their drink with magnesium and iron to help with rest at nighttime. The oddest one I found maybe, is that Pokemon jumped on the bandwagon, By releasing an app that gamifies sleep and offers rewards when you get a good one.
Look, I’m a total sucker and I fall for every single thing that’s advertised to me, so I can’t lie and say that I didn’t write some of these down onto my ‘want’s list’ in my notes when researching.
I don’t know if this is just a stage and phase of my life having a toddler with one on the way that’s got me daydreaming about night dreaming. Or if in a few years time when my kids are a wee bit older, that I might find myself with the energy and time to be social again, go out at night and not be too bothered about what time I hit the hay. But romanticizing my wind downs has been such a life changing (honestly) switch up from my earlier years that right now I can’t imagine anything topping it.
I asked you on my Instagram what you couldn’t live without when it came to your sleep routine and you didn’t disappoint. Hundreds of you replied with excitement to talk about your use of fans in the bedroom (even in the middle of winter), earplugs, magnesium oil on the soles of your feet, sleep balms, podcast listens, meditation, journaling, candles on candles on candles.
One person HAS to have wet hair before they go to bed. Then there were links to blackout eye masks (I use a t-shirt over my head like a crazy person) and supplements. A few of you say absolutely zero screen time an hour before you head to bed while others say they can’t sleep without playing a really boring game on their phone or scrolling on TikTok to switch their brains off.
The main thing I noticed was the same passion for a night routine that I have. So it looks like we are all in this together for whatever the reason – and we sure have come a long way from counting sheep to sleep.
Zzzzzz
