Every guest who tells us they sleep badly gets the same advice, and it is not a supplement or an app. It is a five-minute sequence that signals to the body, in its own language, that the day is over.
First, dim the lights. Not off — dim. Our brains read bright light as "daytime" regardless of the clock, and a cascade of white light after 9pm quietly delays melatonin. Two lamps instead of the ceiling light is enough to start the signal.
Second, warm your feet. A hot shower before bed, or simply warm socks, draws blood to the extremities and drops core temperature slightly — which is exactly the physiological cue for sleep onset. This is the single highest-leverage five minutes in the whole routine.
Third, exhale longer than you inhale. Four counts in, six counts out, for a minute. The long exhale activates the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system the way no amount of lying there worrying ever will.
Fourth, write one sentence. Not a journal entry — one sentence about tomorrow, so the list-making part of your brain can clock out instead of running loops at 2am.
And fifth, the rule that makes all the others work: same time, every night. The body is a creature of rhythm, and it will learn a wind-down in about ten days if you give it the same cue at the same hour.
That is it. No supplements, no screens-off ultimatums. Five minutes, repeated, is the closest thing we know to a sleep prescription that works for most people.