In Part 1 of my 6 Senses Approach to Better Sleep, I looked at sight, hearing and taste - some of the signals our environment and our everyday choices can send to the brain as bedtime approaches.

Now I want to move a little closer to the body.

Because our final three senses - smell, touch and the kinesthetic sense - can become wonderfully physical ways of saying:

you’re safe to stop now.

4. SMELL - create an aroma your brain associates with sleep

Smell is incredibly evocative.

One aroma can suddenly transport you to a holiday, a childhood memory, a person or a place before you’ve consciously worked out why.

So we can use that connection deliberately at bedtime.

Aromatherapy oils traditionally associated with relaxation include lavender, frankincense and chamomile.

You might use a diffuser, or keep it beautifully simple with a drop of your chosen aroma on a tissue tucked safely inside the pillowcase.

But there’s another part of this that I particularly like:

use the same aroma repeatedly.

Rather than changing it every night, allow your chosen scent to become your sleep smell.

Because the olfactory - smell - centre of the brain has such a strong relationship with memory, repetition can help build an association between that aroma and the familiar routine of settling down for the night.

Eventually, simply smelling it can become part of the cue.

Ah. This is what we do before sleep.

5. TOUCH - soothe the body

Physical touch can be profoundly comforting.

And it doesn’t have to come from somebody else.

Simple self-massage can become a lovely part of your night-time wind-down.

Slowly massage your hands.

Circle around the temples.

Gently stroke or massage the bridge of the nose.

Nothing vigorous. Nothing complicated. Just slow, repetitive, reassuring touch.

Your skincare routine can become part of this too.

Rather than racing through cleansing and moisturising because they’re jobs that need doing, deliberately slow them down.

Feel the texture of the cleanser.

Massage your cream into your face rather than simply applying it.

Turn something you already do every evening into a ritual.

A warm bath can provide another powerful transition into rest - followed by a bedroom that feels slightly cooler and fresh when you climb into bed.

Warmth, softness, comfortable bedding, relaxed skin…

All of those sensations tell the body something very different from sitting upright under bright lights answering emails.

6. THE KINESTHETIC SENSE - teach the body what comes next

The kinesthetic sense is essentially our awareness of our body, its position and its movement.

And this is where routine becomes particularly useful.

The body remembers.

If you repeat a similar sequence each night, you gradually build a pathway from activity towards stillness.

Perhaps you do a few gentle stretches.

Perhaps you focus on your breathing.

One breathing pattern you could try is 4-7-8 breathing:

Breathe in for 4.

Hold for 7.

Breathe out slowly for 8.

Or try autogenic relaxation - quietly bringing your attention to different parts of the body and allowing yourself to notice sensations of warmth, heaviness and relaxation.

And finally, there’s possibly the simplest instruction of all:

lie still.

We can become surprisingly restless when we’re trying to sleep - rearranging pillows, changing position, checking the time, moving again.

Sometimes allowing the body to become deliberately still helps the mind recognise that there is nothing more it needs to do.

Create your own sensory sleep ritual

You don’t need all six things every night.

In fact, I’d rather you chose a few that genuinely appeal to you and repeated them.

Perhaps yours becomes:

a warm bath
your skincare ritual
the same calming aroma
a cool bedroom
a little self-massage
and three rounds of slow breathing.

Over time, those tiny actions can become familiar signals.

The lights are lower.

The sounds are softer.

The taste of your evening drink is familiar.

There’s a particular aroma in the room.

Your skin is warm and comfortable.

Your body becomes still.

And gradually, instead of trying desperately to make yourself sleep, you’re simply creating the conditions that invite it.

That feels much gentler to me.

Love, Julia 🤍

If you'd like to download my 6 Senses Approach to Better Sleep guide you can do so here.