Some nights I get into bed and realise my body is in pyjamas, but my mind is still answering emails. I suspect I'm not the only one.
The women I designed DesignerFriday for are the ones who hold a lot: work, family, friendships, and the mental load of remembering everyone else's lives. By the time the day finally pauses, there's a sort of wired-tired that doesn't switch off on its own. It needs a little help.
A bedtime routine sounds like one more thing to do. It isn't. It's the opposite, it's deciding, in advance, that you'll give yourself thirty quiet minutes before sleep so the rest of the day actually ends. Once it's in place, it stops being a routine and starts being a part of the day you look forward to.
This is the one I keep coming back to. None of it is complicated. You can easily do it too!
Pick a "stop" time, and mean it
The most important step happens before anything else: decide when the working part of your day ends. Mine is 9 pm. After that, the laptop closes, the to-do list moves to tomorrow, and the WhatsApp groups go on Do Not Disturb. If something genuinely cannot wait, it's still there in the morning.
What this gives you is a clean line between doing and winding down. Without it, the evening drifts and bedtime keeps moving, and you wonder, again, where the night went.
Lower the lights, lower the volume
The body takes its cues from the room. Bright overhead lights tell it the day isn't over yet; lamps and side lights tell it the day is closing down. If you have dimmers, this is what they're for. If you don't, swap to one or two warm-toned lamps for the last hour.
Background noise matters too. Music helps if it's the right kind, quiet, instrumental, something you don't want to sing along to. Or no music at all, which is its own kind of calm.
A warm shower, then a 10 sec-quick cooler one
A shower before bed isn't just about being clean. The drop in body temperature after a warm shower is one of the signals your body uses to know it's time to sleep. Hot water, five to ten minutes, and then a few seconds cooler at the end if you can stand it. Out, dry, soft.
Change into something you actually want to sleep in
This is where so many bedtime routines quietly fail. We get into the same washed-out t-shirt we've worn for a decade and wonder why bedtime doesn't feel like a treat.
The principle behind the Radiant Set co-ord was exactly this: a piece soft enough to sleep in but beautiful enough that putting it on at the end of the day feels like something. Block-printed organic cotton, designed in London, made by women makers in fair-trade units. The kind of thing that signals to your brain that the working part of your day is genuinely over.
Whatever you choose, make sure it's something that makes your skin and mind happy. Sounds silly, but it's a useful test. Bedtime deserves better than apologetic clothing.
Hair up, skin cared for
Two minutes of small kindnesses to your skin and hair. A cleanser, a moisturiser, whatever your skin is asking for that week, and hair tied up in something gentle. A normal elastic pulls and breaks the hair right at the crown; a silk scrunchie holds without snagging. Tiny detail, real difference over time.
If you wear an eye mask, and if you don't, consider it; a silk one, especially 3-D eye mask, stays put without leaving creases pressed into your face overnight.
Put the phone in another room
I know. But the phone is the single biggest reason routines collapse. One quick scroll becomes forty minutes, and the wind-down you just built evaporates.
You don't need willpower. You need distance. Charge the phone in the kitchen, on a shelf, anywhere that isn't your bedside table. Buy a £10 alarm clock if you used the phone for that. Once it's not within reach, the urge fades quicker than you'd think.
Five minutes of something gentle
Tea, a book, a hand cream slowly worked in, a few long breaths with your eyes closed. Pick one, pick whatever you actually like, and let it be the last thing before sleep. The point isn't to optimise this part.
Sleep on silk if you can
This last one is small but adds up. A silk pillowcase reduces friction overnight, which helps with both hair breakage and the morning creases that take an hour to settle. It also feels lovely, which is reason enough.
22-momme is the silk weight we use, heavy enough to last years, soft enough that you'll notice the difference from the first night.
A note on what "calming" really means
Most bedtime advice treats sleep as a productivity problem to solve. I don't think that's quite it. The reason this routine works isn't because each step is scientifically optimal, it's because the whole thing is a gentle handover from one part of the day to another, and the woman doing it all gets a few minutes that belong only to her.
That was the brief when I designed the Radiant Set. Pieces considered enough to care for your skin, your hair, and your confidence, soft enough to sleep in, beautiful enough to step out in. Made for the slow morning, the school gate, the airport lounge, and, just as much, for the half-hour before bed when the day finally lets you go.
Sleep in it. Step out in it.
➡️ SHOP RADIANT SETS 🤍
Bhavna Rishi, 27th May 2026
