Los Angeles-based astrologist Chani Nicholas has over 20 years experience in the field of astrology and has written horoscopes for publications like Rolling Stone, Oprah Magazine, the NY Times, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, NPR, The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, and Teen Vogue.
As an extremely busy writer and astrologer, winding down after a day’s work can be a challenge, so we asked Nicholas to share her top sleep tips with us, one of which includes Netflix – and we’re not even mad:
Pillow Talk
“My wife and I usually have a long talk before bed. It’s relaxing to sort through the day with each other, making sure that we have some quality time to connect once the business of the day has passed. If something is bothering one of us, we’ll generally stay up until it’s sorted through as much as possible. We also tend to wake up and talk about the dreams that we had the night before if we have time. I feel like sleep and dreaming is such an important place to process the events of our waking lives. We both have a very active dream life and are constantly referring to them as the events of the day unfold.”
Netflix and Popcorn
“When I’ve had a hard day I watch The Great British Baking Show on Netflix until it asks me “Are you still watching?” When my wife leaves for long periods, I usually lose my will to eat a grown-up dinner and instead have popcorn with butter and Spike seasoning salt. When she’s gone, I also lose all sense of an appropriate bedtime and end up watching too many Beyoncé clips on Instagram. If I’m really wound-up, I end up making memes, most of which are too bad to see the light of day. My go-to comfort food is whipped cream. If I’m run down and ragged, I need fat. Lots of it. I could probably live on English trifle.”
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
“My pre-bedtime skin routine is a must. In my twenties, I never paid much attention to what my skin needed, but now I feel like a desert monster if I don’t hydrate.”
The Reading List
“If I’ve got the headspace, I’ll read before bed. Right now I’ve got a bunch of books going. If They Come For Us by Fatima Asghar, Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, and Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam.”
Hypnosis by Crickets
“I’ve recently started to not eat after 6 or 7 p.m., and I feel like it’s helping me to transition from my day to night routines. There’s less work for my body if I stop eating before I sleep and I’m a big night snacker, so it’s been a big change for me. I drink a lot of water after I stop eating and take magnesium and melatonin before bed. I’m super sensitive to sound so we put on “Crickets by the Ocean” by Cricket Sounds on repeat to drown out some of the city noise and generally signal to our bodies that it is time to wind down. It’s kind of like hypnotising ourselves.”
If you struggle to sleep, take Releaf Theanine, a product of natural origin that may assist and temporarily promote relaxation and healthy sleep as well as act as a caffeine antagonist.
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