School of Witchcraft and Knowledge

1. Routine, routine, routine

I am sure you’re so sick of hearing this already, but the human body is a sucker for a solid routine. Set yourself a time for when you want to go to sleep, and a time to get up. I still slip up sometimes, cause nights tend to drag on when you find a new show to binge, but I have noticed that as long as I get up at roughly the same time each morning my body forgives and forgets. Also, is completely alright to not wake up at the same exact time each day. I tend to wake up anywhere from 9am - 11am and that seems to be alrighty for my brain. We’re all different though, so see and try what works for you!

2. Avoid those caffeinated drinks

Caffeine is there to keep you awake, so if it’s past 5pm (or ~7-8h before your bedtime) switch that coffee/tea up for a decaf alternative. I am a sucker for green tea, but I have noticed that if I drink even a tiny bit of it after 5pm I am not going to sleep until at least 3am.  If you are really graving something to drink, and water isn’t gonna cut it try naturally caffeine free teas or some decaf coffee. Also, try to avoid too sugary stuff, cause sugar means energy!

3. If you wanna drink tea, boy do I have a recipe for you!

I discovered this tea for myself a few years ago when I had a proper herb garden. You take some peppermint, lavender and valerian root (if it’s available in your area, if not then fuck it). Not much is needed, as all these things have an incredibly strong taste, but decide on the amounts yourself, based on how you like the flavour (I really hate the taste of valerian, so I’d put the tiniest amount of that, like 3-4 leaves of peppermint and a leaf or two of lavender). Let that steep for about 3 minutes. If you want you can add honey, but I’m not a massive fan so I never did really. 

Drink a cup of that, and I’m getting tired even just thinking about it. Truly magical. 

4. A sleep sachet, cause we’re like that

I don’t really have any magical witch tricks, but I do have a sleep sachet. To make it I took some peppermint (genuinely an amazing plant) and threw it into like a bag, I had some moonstone around, so threw like tiny fragments of that into it, and topped it off with some lavender oil that I had laying around. I guess you could put valerian in there, but honestly it smells nasty and makes your cat go crazy, so I don’t fully recommend.  Tie that lil bag up and throw it under your pillow. The smell of lavender will either make your headache (in which case ignore this point and just throw the sachet away kid), or it will make you fall asleep in like seconds. 

5. Count back from a hundred, just do it

Counting sheep is for boring people, I am a man of science so I count back from a hundred. It’s best if you do it slow, and try to get your breathing to match up with the counting.  For additional effort, do it in a foreign language. Doing it in a foreign language helps me focus on the numbers so my mind won’t start to wonder, and it improves your language skills, so what’s to lose!