From The Straits Times    |

Photo: kikki.K

kikki.K’s founder Kristina Karlsson gets into bed by 8.30pm. She reads a book and writes in her journal before falling asleep. Her phone is kept at bay. She gets up at dawn, and spends an hour between 5 and 6am (what she calls her ‘holy hour’) taking her time to get ready for the day ahead.  

Alas, we Singaporeans tend to have a starkly different bedtime routine. Pretty much everyone we know heads to bed at midnight (as if we were pumpkins), indulges in cyber activity on the phone or laptop and falls asleep with an electronic device next to our face. We wake to the shrill ringing of an alarm clock before hurrying to work. Sleep, for many of us, is a luxury.

Bedroom slippers, $29.90, and eye mask, $19.90
Photo: kikki.K​

So kikki.K’s More Sleep Please range wants you to do just that – sleep more, and more importantly, sleep well. There are scented candles, essential oils and a lavender room mist to soothe your olfactory nerves. To get you in the mood, you can don silky eye masks and squishy bedroom slippers and lavender hand cream for that tactile feel. The message: treat yourself before bed, because recharging your body is a form of self-care.

Inspired, I attempted to switch up my bedroom routine. While hopping into bed at 8.30pm is unfortunately laughably impossible in a city that literally never sleeps, I decided to attempt the following.

#1. Not touch my phone and laptop for an hour before going to bed, and an hour once I wake.

#2. Head to bed early, and wake up early.

#3. Journal before I sleep.

#4. Stop snoozing my alarm for a whole hour (guilty as charged).

Sleep journal, $29.90
Photo: kikki.K​

It was, unsurprisingly, difficult. I had mild separation anxiety from my phone (who’s texting me! What’s happening on Instagram!). I have the habit of scrolling through social media and reading news headlines before I sleep and once I wake, and it was difficult to kick. The #FOMO was real. But it was alleviated when I started writing down a list of what I needed to do the next day, and focused on reading a new book. I misted the room with lavender spray, and lit a candle for extra #feelgood vibes. I turned in at 11pm, an hour earlier than usual.

The next morning I resolved not to fall back asleep when my alarm went off at 6am. Neither did I reach for my phone. I had strategically left my notebook next to me last night, and took the opportunity to write down what I wanted to achieve this weekend. In the quiet of the early morning before the worries of the day set in, I realised it was easier for me to think about how I wanted to spend my time. Writing them down was the first step in crystallising them into action.

Porcelain teacup and saucer, $39.90
Photo: kikki.K​

As for the quality of my sleep, to be honest, I didn’t notice that much of a difference (especially since I was still clocking my usual 7 hours). I’ve never had difficulty falling asleep, and when tired, am dead to the world. But I appreciated the morning and evening routines of carving out this small slice of time that I usually surrender to my phone.

So perhaps that’s what it’s really all about – not cramming more hours of sleep to reclaim that sleep debt, or sleeping in because we crashed at 3am the night before. It’s about treating sleep not as a necessity but as a way to being kind to our body and by extension, our mind. And if being more mindful of my sleeping patterns gives me extra clarity for the day, then I say that kikki.K is on to something.

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