By Our Bedsides, Vol. 11 – Olivia Gündüz-Willemin

By Our Bedsides is The Attic on Eighth’s evening series, sharing the methods and products we use to unwind. In a time when the world feels unstable, Attic Editor-in-Chief Olivia Gündüz-Willemin gives us a glimpse into her nightly routine.

Photo by Olivia Gündüz-Willemin.

How much has changed since the last time I did a By Our Bedsides? I got married, I redecorated, I finished my MA degree. I moved. I tackled my anxiety disorder. I started a real, grown up job. And I better got to know the importance of having a solid bedtime routine that helps me to wind down, relax, and have a better night’s sleep.

One big change in my nighttime routine now that I have an apartment with multiple rooms (truly thrilling!) is that I no longer spend any time in bed unless I’m actually planning to go to sleep. Truly, a luxury. Instead, all film watching and nighttime book reading are spent on my sofa, and I use the evenings to make sure my bedroom window is open and my bedroom as aired out as possible. (I also have an air filter and many plants, but nothing beats actual fresh air.) Fresh air helps regulate the temperature in the room, and I know that if it’s a little cool, I’ll sleep better.

A dressing table and a bobbin chair to boost. Photo by Olivia Gündüz-Willemin.

Once I’m ready to go to sleep, I get ready by removing my makeup and going through my skincare routine. Even there, I feel like I’ve stepped up a little in the adult realm and have a dressing table just around the corner from my night table where I sit down to put on my eye and face creams. It makes me feel slightly luxurious, and I’m grateful for it. (In terms of products, I remain a big fan of Glossier’s milky jelly cleanser, Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery – both cleansing oil and later, eye cream, and Kiehl’s ultra facial cream. I’ll probably pick up a night specific cream in the near future as my thirtieth birthday is just around the corner. What I don’t do are retinoids or serums.)

I’m not a minimalist by nature, so I like having lots of things that make me happy by my bedside, and I don’t like to hide it. At some point in the last few years, I replaced my night table lamps, and I’m very excited to have new lampshades coming soon. I also removed a bookcase that sat on my night table and instead now have more art displayed. Thanks to our founding Lifestyle Editor Lee Clark’s advice and the wise words of Deborah Needleman, I fell in love with baskets as a means of organizing random objects on a surface. A basket lets you keep different things together without making things look too hectic or messy. As such, I keep all the products and objects I need beside my bed in a nice big basket: scrunchies, headbands, lip balm, hand cream, spare bookmarks, a stress ball, and my eye pillow. I like having these things at arm’s length when in bed because I’m more likely to actually use them if I don’t need to open a container or drawer (hello, executive dysfunction). Other night table mainstays are framed photos, a stack of books, a small stuffed goat from Bede’s World (he is in fact named Bede), my medication (kept in my little brass pineapple), my lavender linen spray, and a journal where I jot down three things that made me happy that day before going to sleep.

Bedside artwork and bedside plants. Photo by Olivia Gündüz-Willemin.

Knowing that my bed is for sleep only and not for hours of reading means that falling asleep is easier than it used to be. When you hang out in bed for hours, your mind associates it with staying awake, and so that can eventually make sleep very difficult. I’ve talked about sleep struggles & remedies on The Attic on Eighth in the past, and I stand by many of those remedies – fresh air, comforting scents, and breathing exercises are my favorites now. That doesn’t mean that I don’t let myself read for a bit before going to sleep – I just limit it to twenty minutes at most. That way I know it’s truly a winding down activity.

My other big bedside and nighttime savior is a silk and linen eye pillow (I bought mine at Anthropologie, but you can find one anywhere – just make sure it has a slipcover that you can wash regularly and actual dried lavender on the inside!) . I’ve never been able to sleep with a sleep mask – I hate having something wrapped around my head and hate that it’s always there. The sleep pillow differs in that it’s stuffed with dried lavender and so is both weighted – something that is very popularly associated with comfort – and doesn’t have a band that goes around your head. Instead it’s a literal tiny pillow and is less constricting. It falls off once you fall asleep – at least if you move around a lot – and that makes it super comfortable. It helps knock me out, but it doesn’t wake me up because it’s on my face still.

Going through my routines and having meaningful and comforting things at arm’s length means that I now look at going to sleep as a cozy activity rather than one that looms ahead with guaranteed insomnia… something for which I am deeply grateful in these constantly changing and uncertain times.

A bedside ensemble. Photo by Olivia Gündüz-Willemin.

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Olivia Gündüz-Willemin is Editor-in-Chief of The Attic on Eighth. She is dedicated to reading her way through the world and trying to stay as calm as possible.