what do you do at bedtimes?

[rainbowunicorn22]

I dont mean in the first flush when bedtimes mean lots of passion but later when you are settled together.
We dont watch tv but our idea of a nice bedtime is OH is busy playing Candy Crush on his phone, i am reading a murder true life book probably plucking my chin at the same time usually with a tasty pack of biscuits between us!
or maybe we are odd?

I've been listening to Lady Killers with Lucy Something (Worsley?) and the one with Laura Whitmore and Ian Sterling! Sorry I am rubbish at remembering but they are both on BBC Sounds...

We usually go up about 10/10.30ish depending on what’s on TV. Well read for a bit then lights out. Definitely no food in bed.

I have more or less given up alcohol, whereas I used to have a couple of large glasses of wine each evening, I know have about three a week and they are most commonly at lunchtime. It does help to drink less in the evening, but although I noticed an improvement initially, it was sadly not long lasting. So frustrating.

I can't drink caffeine after the early afternoon either. If I do then I simply won't get to sleep at all before around 2am.

I know what you mean about all the well-meaning advice of what to do or not do to improve sleep, mediation, CBT and all that stuff. I've tried so many things they don't really work. the big no-no is apparently too much screen time before bed but that doesn't explain all the hours I laid awake most of my life (literally from the age of about 8 or 9 until my early thirties) before smart phones and ipads were invented. I spent about 10 years barely watching TV in the evenings but listening to the radio instead. Made no difference.

At least in those pre-internet days I used to get up and potter downstairs, watch a bit of very strange middle of the night TV, read a book or even do some housework or go for a 4am stroll in the lighter/warmer months. When the internet was first invented I started going downstairs and sitting at the desktop computer. Nowadays I stay in bed and just reach for my i-pad, reading, watching stuff and doing word puzzles until my eyes eventually get so heavy that I know it's safe to re-attempt sleep. This usually takes around 2 hours.

And before anyone says it, yes I know all this stimulation to my brain is the very opposite of what I'm supposed to be doing to encourage restful sleep, but that entirely misses the point. By this stage I've already lain awake for about an hour counting sheep, planning fictional holidays, top 50 favourite songs or baby names or my death row final meals in my head and I'm STILL AWAKE. My I can't read a book without turning a lamp on and disturbing my DH so the i-pad is the only thing keeping me from complete derangement by this point.

😂

Kids are asleep by 8pm, so get up off the toddler’s floor (he falls asleep quickly but needs me there), get into pyjamas, brush teeth, wash face & then lie in bed reading for about 90 minutes. Lights off at 9.30-10pm.

DH takes the dog for a quick round the block and tidies up, as I do all cooking and settle the kids. Sometimes I venture down for a chat and cup of tea before bed, but right now we’re both up to our eyeballs in toddler/small child/work type stuff and just value a couple of hours to ourselves in the evening.

We try to have a ‘date day’ every couple of months where we book AL, put the youngest in nursery and oldest in school, and go out for lunch and a trip somewhere like a museum. Twice a year we go away for the night to a spa. That’s our ‘us’ time.

Bed at 10ish, we both read. Dh tends to fall asleep before me but doesn’t mind me keeping the light on to read. We don’t do phones and TV in bed.

It doesn’t make the hair grow more. That’s a myth. There’s no reason not to to pluck it.

I wouldn’t say we really had a ‘routine’ as such. We usually have dinner around 8ish, relax for a bit either doing our thing while we listen to the radio or a podcast, or watching TV together or something. DP usually goes up to bed around midnight after watching Newsnight and then the newspaper reviews on Sky. Either I go at the same time or I go up a bit later after he’s asleep. If we go up at the same time he usually reads some stuff on his iPad and I read or do some writing on my phone while we listen to the radio. Radio goes off automatically around 1am and DP falls asleep while I stay up reading or listening to an audiobook. But that’s not every night. Some nights we’ll be out for dinner or at a gig, some nights we go to football matches, some nights we’ll have sex - it’s not really a routine.

If you can’t lie in (never been able to) going to bed early is the equivalent so 9pm is a reverse lie in. Fantastic!

I am going to blow people's minds. We are not living room people. After dinner and clearing up we go to bed to watch TV or play mario kart with DD in our room. That's usually about 6.30pm.

Then about 9.30 the TV goes off and we read scroll on phones until 10.30

Sounds like a nice bedtime op x

insomnia is the reason for my sleep chaos. though I go early i often read for an hour or two fall asleep about 11 then wake up again about 1 at latest. thats me awake until 3 or 4 sometimes OH is awake too then sleep again about 4 couple hours then either get up or if its a day when not much on read until 8. i have been like this for about 6 years now since my last breakdown but i still function fine. i could when i had my shop easily manage all day even on 3 hours of sleep on bad nights i dont fight it i just accept it which makes it easier to cope with

Me and my husband go up to bed about 9pm and watch whatever series we are watching til about 11:30pm then we always have a little spoon before we fall asleep, get down to business a few nights a week generally once we’ve done with the telly

We go up around 9 in winter as chilly downstairs. And watch tv until 12ish.
Summer usually go up around 10.30 tv then sleep

If I'm in, I'm in bed. All my kids have flown and I am single. No better place than bed.

Actually, having done this myself and subsequently paying the price, it does.

It toughens the hair follicles and they grow back much darker and stronger.

I’ve spent the best part of 2 years (and a fair amount of money) rectifying the problem.

I wish someone had told me not to do it 😞

Pretty much this, plus sex some nights.

Sorry OP, but a packet of biscuits between two people every day just before bed is a shockingly unhealthy habit. Try cutting this out to see if it helps with insomnia / waking up in the middle of the night.

We have separate bedrooms. I have tinnitus which affects my sleep so I put the TV on if I'm having trouble sleeping (which is most of the time!).

Some people on here need to have a deep and sober look at their life choices. Yes, I'm looking at you, herbal-tea-and-book crowd. You'll damage yourselves, going on like that. If you don't stop all that fast living, you're going to end up in rehab with no way back, and God knows how many lives you'll destroy on the way!

🤣🤣🤣

I thought she meant that the biscuits were placed between them, not that they went through a packet a night.

No sorry packet is usually there between me and him if we fancy one we have one or two but then the packet goes in the cupboard for the rest of the week. in fact this week we have not had any and last night we had an apple each

As many have said, some people need to be up at 5.

Show DW stuff such as cakes etc
Then weird stuff like sea urchin salad.🤷