City Lights
I’m a March baby and this little Pisces starlet lovvvves celebrating another year around the sun! I can remember nearly each and every celebration, none the least of which was the year the world shut down. Which, of course, turned out to be less of a celebration and more of a turning point. But, I know I don’t need to remind you: it was a time.
I was planning a trip to Paris for my birthday that year. And as it turns out, while birthdays wait for no one (I still turned another year older, afterall), my flight got cancelled a couple of days before my trip and Paris would have to wait for another day.
That “other day” arrived all these years later, when I booked Paris for my birthday with my sister, the best spring getaway and one of my highlights of the year. And the best, most luxe souvenir that I brought back with me was the kind you can’t pack in a suitcase.
Paris Nights
If you’ve been to Paris, perhaps you already know that every hour on the hour the Eiffel Tower gets LIT. An abundance of sparkling lights in the city of lights!
And thanks to my sister’s hotel status, we were the lucky ones with an upgrade to a room that overlooked this nightly light show. So as we made our way back from each day’s adventures, we would shed our layers from the day and settle in for a little sparkle-sparkle! It became the celebration of a day well spent, night after night.
But there was something else that added a little touch of luxury each night as we wound down the day: turndown service! Do you know the kind? Where housekeeping comes in when you are away, turns the bed sheets down, draws the curtains, dims the lights, and places slippers by the bed. No detail is spared; they even switched the TV to soothing sleep music. It was a sleeper’s paradise, with all the external signals that it was time to rest.
This is where I discovered the ultimate evening routine: turndown service and the final light show of the night.
And this is where it clicked for me: turndown service is peak luxury.
The Luxe Life
“Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams” was the catch phrase used to end every episode of the 80’s show Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. It was a series that offered a glimpse into the lavish and extravagant lifestyle of luxury. It was perhaps a little gaudy and ostentatious; today we might even call it gauche.
But in the era of tv that popularized Cheers, give me “champagne wishes & caviar dreams” over a bar where everyone knows your name, any day.
The show didn’t just provide insight into how the rich lived; it also gave us the blueprint for a luxury mindset. The lux mindest is all about the desire to turn the drab delightful, the bland beautiful, and the mundane magical.
And it turns out you don’t need beaucoup bucks or access to generational wealth to start to live your own luxe life. You can live a luxe life every single day, through your habits.
Richer Habits: Sleep
Let’s take sleep, for example. Sleep is one of those things that, once dialed in, can give you all the happy hits:
Healthier. When you are well rested, you have more vibrancy: it boosts your immune system and improves physical performance and daily function.
Hotter. Getting enough quality sleep will help you glow from the inside out: it improves mood, helps regulate emotions, and reduces stress.
Smarter: Sleep is the #1 habit you can prioritize if you are trying to work smarter not harder: when you sleep, your subconscious processes the day, consolidates memories, and literally solves problems while you rest.
Richer: Waking up from a good night’s rest will boost your problem-solving and creativity IRL (the conscious mind), and that’s how we make money, honey!
TLDR; sleep will make you hotter, richer, smarter, and healthier.
Morning routine gets all the attention, but when we are talking about the MVP of better habits, sleep, evening routine is the real hero of all better everything.
In its most basic form it is bland, drab, and mundane: brush teeth, wash face, put on PJs (or don’t). But now that you know better (luxury is a state of mind), you can do better.
Introducing, Turndown Service.
Turndown Service is something that can take you as little as 2 mins, and it is the luxe habit that I didn’t know I needed (so maybe it’s the same for you!).
Luxe Sleep, a Recipe
Since this series is all about Micro Habits, I’m sharing my version of Turndown Service, the minimum viable dose, based on my Paris nights. Please delight in making this all your own:
Set Up A Trigger. Every good habit or routine starts with a trigger, that thing that signals: it’s time! Here are some that work for me. You should consider what works for you, keeping in mind that we are channeling that luxury mindset, so make it magical!
Phone Alarm: set a cute tone/tune as a daily alarm for when you need to begin Turndown Service
Alexa/Google Smart Speakers: set to play a sleep vibes playlist at a certain time each night.
Lights: set your lights to dim when it’s time for turndown service, it helps set the sleep vibes.
Create Your Turndown Service Checklist: Housekeeping might not be coming in each night to fluff your pillows, but it doesn’t take long to run through a quick checklist of setting up your sleep environment for that sweet, deep sleep. Here’s what the experts recommend, including links to what I use if you need a rec.
White Noise: proven to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. My air purifier doubles as a white noise machine for me, and I love it [amazon link to the one I have]!
Blackout Curtains/Eye Mask: total darkness signals to your brain that it is time to sleep and boosts deep sleep. I love a silk eye mask, and this one from Quince is my new fave.
Chill Zone: studies show that a cool, dark environment acts as a signal for your circadian rhythm, and something like 60-67° is just right for boosting your natural melatonin and helping you fall asleep faster. Because I love automation, I have the Nest Thermostat that does this for me.
Bonus Sleep Magic: I live for a weighted blanket [this is the one I have] and mouth tape [this one delights me]
Add A Luxe-Touch: Luxury when it comes to evening routine feels like: good skin care, silky pajamas, salt baths, aromatherapy. This is where you can make it your own: what does luxury feel like to you?
Go Low Tech: The bedroom is where the magic happens, so make it a distraction-free zone by charging your phone in the other room, turning the tv off (or not having one in the bedroom to begin with, and if you’re feeling really wild turn off your wifi overnight for the ultimate unplug.
Ready Your Mind: Sometimes the hardest thing to turn off at night is our brains.If that’s the case for you, here are some ideas for what you might want to try. Breathwork is the most low-tech: inhaling and exhaling through a space in your body (your heart, or the space between your eyebrows works great), for anywhere from 5-20 full cycles of breath. If you need reinforcement, you can try a sleep meditation, a sleep app, or doing evening pages as part of your evening routine (3 pages of journaling as a brain dump for everything on your mind).
Upgrade your evening routine, babe. You deserve it.
With Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams,
