Build a Bedside Book Stack for Better Beauty Sleep

Take a good book to bed at night, and you could experience a natural melatonin surge, a rapid and powerful reduction in stress, a better quality night's sleep, and an awakening to a kinder and wiser version of yourself the next day. All of this takes about 20 minutes, according to WebMD. Magical!

A novel is safer than a melatonin supplement and more effective and pleasurable than a meditation app. But when is the last time you read yourself an enchanting bedtime story from a beautiful print book?

My favorite bedtime stories are thick novels, dreamy folktales, or fascinating lives of historical figures. They take me away from all my own worries and send me to a distant world I am free to explore at my own pace.

The trick is to balance distraction with relaxation. If you have a lot on your mind, you'll need something stronger to stop the cycle of worried thoughts. Some people even find horror and thriller genres comforting for that reason, while others prefer gently paced narratives with delicate, lovely prose. My most popular novel, Leirah and the Wild Man, mixes a little of both with threads of fairy tales from the Grimms' canon, Slavic folklore, and beyond.

If you slept well as a child, something that reminds you of your favorite childhood tales, but leveled up to stimulate the adult brain, could be just what it takes to draw you into dreamland.

On other nights you might want to slip between the sheets of a sensual, sexy story, especially if sleeping isn't the only thing you want to get in the mood for.

My newest release, The Grove of Thorismud, combines the beloved fairy tales "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" in a seductive fantasy about the subversive pleasure in strategic submission. It's a tale of sweet surrender, laced with sexy scriptures and ancient pagan poetry.

Other times, a hit of good humor and empowerment can lift you into grrrrl power dreams to elevate your confidence in the morning.

Sometimes it feels relaxing to open a tale with an expansive timeline, to feel like you've witnessed months or years of another life during your 20-minute bedtime reading. Sweeping family sagas can broaden our perspectives and flex our sense of time. And "mama dramas" can help to heal our inner child.

Sometimes a spiritually meditative read can take our breath away in a completely out-of-time, out-of-body moment of all-consuming awe. It's a tender way to shock your senses into a total reset without inducing the thrills and chills of horror.

Let a beautiful pile of books seduce you into the deep dreams of a healthy beauty sleep. Nighty night!

And for more dreamy life advice...