My sleeptime routine

I have thought about this post already quite some time when I go to bed.   While I'm pulling down my shirt and tucking in my duvet against my loins and pull up my knees, it seemed interesting to my peculiar/ neurotic/ oversensitive bedtime routines. 

Right timing

Whereas I used to be up rather late and started doing some ironing or cleaning up after 10 PM, my routines drastically shifted since I became a mother.  Mothering and feeding a baby around the clock is only workable if you go to bed early.  If you need to function while also waking up at night for a couple of years while waking up 1 or 2 or 3 or 4times a night, then you need to spend up more time in bed (and try to ensure you don't fully wake up and can turn back to sleep quickly...which usually easy enough when you are that tired).   

And since then children wake up early and I can't stay up late anymore.  I notice on the rare evenings that we have friends over or we have a dinner with colleagues etc, that I start yawning and can't concentrate anymore after 10 PM.  

So I tend to go to bed between 10 and 10.30PM. If I miss my moment, it is so much harder to fall asleep while I am right away in dreamland if I crawl up at the right moment. Before that my attention fades slowly away, I stare a bit tv, but I'm not active reading anymore. 

Fading out: 

When I feel the moment is coming, I am not doing much active anymore. I don't watch Netflix before bedtime (or exceptionally some short comic that doesn't need much brainpower).  I can't blog anymore and most of the time I don't read anymore either because that feels too complicated.
And please, no big discussions when my brain is slowly fogging up.  Don't reactivate that brain activity please. 

The end of the evening I am usually in the sofa with linear tv on.  That's what my dad also did before bedtime. 

Right positioning

I'm quite particular when I crawl into bed.   Since Kabouter asked once, I realise I have a favorite ear too to sleep on.  I prefer to doze off on my left side. But that is mostly because Jan is on the left side so the right side is the bed's edge. And I want to tuck the duvet behind my back.  Also on a sofa or in the chair, I always want my lower back well cover and supported potentially with an extra pillow.  

I crawl up and pull up my legs but not to a full 90C as that isn't comfortable for too long. 

Over the years we have some teddy bears accumulated in our bed and since I am no longer co-sleeping with my babies, I pull one or 2 of them against belly.  I love that warm soft feeling that reminds me of my babies but as Jan once joked, they also serve as protection against any cold draft that could sneak under the sheets if Jan is twisting and turning in his sleep.   There is nothing more horrible than being disturbed in the warm nest that I create for myself at night by cold air.  

The duvet is pulled up against my cheek line.  My arms are pulled up and positioned with my hands next to my pillow. 

Once asleep or later at night I find myself also sleeping comfortably on my back or on the other side. But to doze off I almost always in that exact same position.  

How about you, do you have specific sleep routines?