I found it great to read the comments of people’s experiences, observations and experiments around the practice of getting an early night in response to the article The Science of Early To Bed – so much wisdom readily available in us.
A few of the comments relating to what we do before we go to bed have activated my keyboard this morning. To me, ‘before’ bed is not just the last few minutes before I peel back the sheets and get in.
I agree with what has been shared that it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.
But for me it goes back even further than the day’s activities, to how I make my bed in the morning. This may sound funny to some, and some may accuse me of being ‘obsessive’, however, in the morning as soon as I get up (early) I have a little ritual – fully present and loving with myself – when I make my bed. I devote up to 5 minutes to it.
I take off the pillows, top sheet, doona and blankets, whatever… then I smooth out all the wrinkles in the mattress protector and bottom sheet and tuck it back in tight so it’s neat, then shake and smooth out the pillows and put them in place, nicely centred. I then feel how much warmth I may need for the night and choose the coverings accordingly. After that the top sheet goes on, with the same length hanging down both sides of the bed, no wrinkles, and enough length up the pillow end for a comfortable fold-back. Then on goes the doona and/or blankets, also applied symmetrically and smoothed out. I finish by topping off with a couple of colour-matched velvet cushions, shaken out, smoothed and placed at harmonious angles.
Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?
I can feel it myself, and so can others (“It feels so amazing, am I allowed to sit here?” kind of thing.) When it’s time for me to go to bed and I begin to peel back the covers, my face erupts in a smile ‘all by itself’ – my body is feeling the love I have put into my bed to support and cradle me all night. It feels so delicious and inviting, the smile is inevitable! I can go to sleep within seconds of my head meeting the pillow . . . provided of course I have quietened myself down from the day instead of leaping into bed at 10,000 rpm. Even then, the quality of love in my bed is so strong and supportive that it can help me wind down . . .
It might seem like there’s not enough time in the day to put this level of care into things like making one’s bed, preparing one’s food, clothes, bathroom, kitchen, work spaces, etc., but when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over, etc., I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!
Dedicated to everyone’s loving choices that bring the best quality sleep!
By Dianne Trussell BSc, science researcher, educator & writer, Goonellabah, NSW, Australia
Further Reading:
Insomnia – my sleep disorder or my daily dis-order?
Ironing the Pillow Cases – A Lesson of Love
Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes you Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
Livingness Toolkit
899 Comments
Starting the day with an imprint of love to return to sets a foundation of loving care and attention to all activities during the day.
Those ‘little’ lovely details DO make a difference to life. I love to fold my clothes in certain ways depending on what it is. I do this at work too and it feels lovely opening the drawer and seeing the care and detail.
The truth is, love is actually all there is and as far fetched as it sounds we will one day live that truth again.
There is power when we bring order to our living spaces. The love we imprint our spaces with, loves us back! Each time we go back to re-tidy and clean we are not setting the bar back to zero, but deepening the imprint of before.
I really need to apply this same philosophy to my work desk! to often I leave it to only come back to a disorganised mess!
‘Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?’ Getting into a lovingly made bed is like the warmest cuddle ever. Bed time has to be my favourite moment of the day when I can snuggle down and feel all that love feeding me back!
When it comes to our day the energy that we awaken is then put into our movements so our bed making can then prepare us for our most loving day and as this is a spherical approach to life we awaken the next day having evolved from the previous day because of the way we have approached each day from the outset, so building a forever deepening level of Love-every-day WOW! thanks Dianne.
It makes sense, the energy that we make our bed in (or do not make our bed!) we come back to at the end of the day, so, do we do this in a quality that supports us? This could be said for everything we do .. how we get dressed, cook a meal etc are we doing it being present with ourselves and in a way that supports ourselves. I have a lot to learn with this one and sometimes when I am in a rush can feel just how this affects me, and others, not in a great way.
How I wake up sets the day. I love waking up to the birds singing it’s pitch dark outside but they are already greeting the day to come with such energy and enthusiasm. I make my bed knowing that it is a place of great rest to come back to. How I am in my day makes a huge difference too. But going into my bedroom at night and seeing just how inviting my bed is, ready for me to put my self to sleep again is well quite magical.
My husband is amazing at making our bed, he makes it every morning without fail. When someone commits to doing something and brings there kind of flare to it it is just gorgeous and inspiring to see.
I love making my bed, I lay my PJ’s and my i pillow on my heated blanket, I then turn my electric blanket on half hour before bed so they are all nice and toasty before I get dressed and jump in!
Our bed and how we prepare it so when we return to sleep we are greeted by a deepened love that we have lived during the day and this is because we have started with the most Loving ritual that snowballs as we appreciate the Love we are living.
Bringing this level of care and love into areas of our life will have a huge impact on our lives and health.
There will be a time when all we’re leaving is the imprint of love wherever we go rather than what we’re all currently leaving which is the imprint of what is not at all loving wherever we go. It’s not so much that we ourselves are the stamp it’s more that we are the portals through which either love or what is not love comes through. Interestingly despite the fact that we live in what appears to be a loveless world, love is actually our default setting. We just work tirelessly to scribble it out.
Your blog really makes me sit up and ask if we are paying attention to the smaller details in life – after all – we have no idea how far one ripple, or one choice can go.
With sleep being such a big issue for many people these days it would be great if they were given articles like this when they seek help, ‘it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.’
And how much more our education would be true in a sense that it actually works when we apply truthfull observation and change whatever is needed from there.
Dianne, I love reading about the care that you take when making your bed – it feels very nurturing to take care of the details.
Dianne, ‘Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?’ This is lovely. I notice this if I leave my house tidy and cared for – it feels really supportive to come back home to this care at the end of the day.
Dianne, I love this; ‘Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?’ I have experienced this love and support from my living room and dining room area – where I have allowed the time to lovingly clean and tidy this area in the morning and then to return home after work has felt amazing to come back to such a loving and supportive space and so I can feel how this would also happen with lovingly making my bed.
It brought a smile to my lips Dianne reading how your body received the love that you had made the bed in. There is nothing better than feeling the quality of our essence in all our movements.
I love your words “…dressing my bed…” Elizabeth. I had actually never considered that before but I am sure now I won’t forget, ensuring that the love I dress myself in, in the morning will be the same love with which I will ‘dress’ my bed. Now I can’t wait for the morning!
So simple, but so profound and a very practical way to bring more order into one’s life. And having more order in the morning cannot but help to support the order of our day and on into the night, such is the power of the ripple effect. Turning back a bed made in love is, for me, a real smile moment.
Once you have prepared and made your bed with such love and care and felt the difference it would be very hard not to do it every day.
There are so many areas we can bring more care and love to ourselves, this is one such example, how we make our bed in the morning, ‘ fully present and loving with myself – when I make my bed. ‘
This level of attention to detail is super supportive on every level. Once you start you sure don’t want to stop and you get to feel that there is a deeper level you can always take this love for ourselves.
Sleep is needed to maintain our vitality which is why it is important to prepare ourselves properly for it.
Oh how lovely ✨
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” I absolutely love this sentence… And of course the same goes for anything we do when we bring that level of love and care to it. I have often felt that cleaning when there is nothing to clean, or tidying up when a room is tidy has seemed pointless.
But what I am appreciating now is that there is always an opportunity to reimprint any space with love, so that whoever comes into it next will feel the depth and quality of how it has been prepared. Whether they are aware of it or not is of no consequence.
It’s great to see how circumstance in our day may play out chaotically – but it’s not random at all but a consequence of some simple choices you made at the beginning of it all.
“the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!” This is so true and a real life example of how we can bring love and self care into our lives and the difference joy and expansion this brings to each moment we choose it .
Getting into my bed at the end of the day has to be one of my favourite activities, not just because I want to go to sleep but because of the investment, love, care and attention I have paid to setting up my whole bedroom. I also devote a number of minutes to making my bed in the morning so that the love I put in it feeds me back when I get in it! I find it an absolute joy and a real support just to be in my bedroom.
Beautiful. What an experiment to do and fully allow ourselves that we deserve to put care into our every day.
How you make your bed in the morning after getting up sets already the quality of going to sleep in the night.
How much are we in rhythm with every movement which sets the standard for the next movement to come?!
Love doesn’t come out of nowhere, it rides on the back of all the loving choices that have gone before it. I like most people thought that I could pluck love out of thin air whilst making unloving choices in every single area of my life. I have now rediscovered love and that rediscovery has come about as a result of changing my unloving choices into loving ones, one loving choice at a time.
Super inspirational Dianne. This loving procedure will cost you 5 or 10 minutes but most probably will save you an extra hour of sleep. The more love you have in you body once you get into bed the less sleep is needed to heal what is not love.
We can never escape the fact that there is a quality of energy behind every move we make as such every imprint we leave holds a quality of energy that represents love or lovelessness. We can feel it all however it comes down to whether we want to be honest about what we feel as such take the responsibility of what quality of energy we are choosing to be moved by. To make our bed in a loving way is an act of love that not only honours who we are but also is an honouring of the love we all are and all deserve to be met with through our movements, be it in person or by way of our imprints.
Very true Carola. And there are no shades of grey in the energy behind everything we do: it is with a healing energy, or a harming energy. No middle ground.
This article talks about the great science of energetic imprints, and how these can form the basis of our lives, to be more loving and supportive as we work and toil throughout the day, with a returning to our divine selves when it is time to rest and recover.