A woman tried a "1940s bedtime routine" and called it a game-changer for her sleep.
The CDC reports that about 15% of adults have trouble sleeping "most days or every day." That number is on the rise, and can be seen in the rapid rise of melatonin usage—up nearly five-fold in the past 20 years or so—and other sleep aids.
There are a lot of modern factors that play a role in difficulty sleeping, from high caffeine consumption to a heavy use of blue-light screens. These, along with high levels of general stress and anxiety, suppress natural melatonin production and make falling and staying asleep a challenge for many people.
One YouTuber decided to take matters into her own hands and try a brand new nighttime routine in order to get better sleep. She borrowed the entire thing from the 1940s.
Hannah, who runs the channel Real Vintage Dolls House, shared in a recent video that she had a "non-existent nighttime routine," and decided to try a routine similar to what the average woman would have done in the 1940s.
The 1940s were a time of great fear and consternation. But somehow people slept way better. Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash
She explains that the 1940s, of course, were a time of great international strife and rationing for the war effort. But even still, people (women, especially) were expected to keep on top of their hygiene and personal appearance.
Many women at the time, Hannah goes on to say, would actually leave the house to work traditionally male jobs during the war. A woman like Hannah may have worked at a shipyard or factory and then returned to a homemaking and child-rearing role at the end of a long day.
For Hannah's experiment, she began with a bath after working hours. Of course, due to rationing, she could only use five inches of water.
From there, Hannah changes into her "night clothes": A set of silk pajamas with matching robe and house slippers. Extremely cozy.
Fascinatingly, after sitting down to brush her hair after washing, she rubs the strands together between her fingers to test for cleanliness. Women at the time would often wash with soap once every two weeks or so, then do another pass with lemon juice or vinegar to strip away the soap residue. If the hair made a squeaking sound when rubbed together, it meant you did a good job, hence the term "squeaky clean." The vintage 1940s nighttime routine then called for a significant amount of time spent brushing the hair. One hundred brushes was a commonly recommended practice at the time.
Hannah then continues following 1940s protocol and cleans her skin with a cleansing cream, plucks her eyebrows, applies Vaseline to her lips, files her nails, and sets her hair in overnight rollers. Men, for their part (if they weren't at war), would likely be reading the paper or listening to the radio while resting after a long day.
Finally, it's time to wind down. Hannah sets a dim light in her room, bundles up under a blanket, then proceeds to knit and read a book before turning out the light for sleep.
"The bedtime routine of this era was a much more thorough and communal ritual than I'm used to. Centered around rest and basic comforts... evenings were quieter, slower, and focused on family connections."
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Hannah says she thinks screens are a big reason people today have trouble sleeping, and the experts agree.
"And that's something that I find really interesting, and is likely a huge reason many of us struggle to go to sleep: Mobile phones and televisions. There weren't any," she says. "With fewer distractions, the emphasis was on comfort and quiet. People would actually settle in for a more peaceful and slower transition to sleep. Which probably meant that they got a better nights sleep. And that was a focus. Getting a good night's rest to prepare for the busy day ahead."
Working on a laptop, scrolling on a phone, or even watching television are extremely common before-bed activities in many parts of the world now. But scientists unanimously agree that these habits are harmful to our sleeping habits.
In 2022, the National Sleep Foundation noted, "Light exposure within two hours of bedtime can be disruptive to one’s sleep cycle. That’s because exposure to blue light at night stimulates your brain into thinking it’s earlier in the day. Your brain slows or stops its release of melatonin, making it harder to fall asleep."
Of course, it's not only the screens. Surveys show that about one third of people don't have a consistent bedtime routine at all, and if they do, it's far shorter than what was common in the 1940s (just 21 minutes on average). The long, thorough, completely analog routine demonstrated by Hannah does a lot more than keep your skin moisturized and your hair looking nice. It gradually unwinds you and allows tension, stress, and anxiety to slowly melt away before you attempt to sleep.
Another vintage YouTuber conducted a similar experiment here:
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Phones and televisions have made our lives easier and more enjoyable in many ways, and no one would ever yearn for the days of a violent World War. But the data is clear that people are sleeping worse than ever, so there may be some helpful clues we can take from the past.
We may not be able to completely isolate ourselves from the fast-paced society around us, but it's worth considering if we each can't slow down our nighttime routines. Try less screen time, more self-care, and a gentler, slower transition from go-go-go to deep rest for better sleep.