The Calm Diet: What I Eat, Drink & Do in a Day for Better Sleep

Could a calmer night actually start first thing in the morning? From what we eat and drink to caffeine, movement and our evening rituals, here’s what I’ve learned about building a day that makes switching off that little bit easier.

I am very good at sleeping.

I realise that’s quite an irritating sentence if you’re currently reading this after Googling how to sleep better at 2am, but bear with me. In my 20's my diet was early start, tube, hash brown & mocha, pret lunch, wetherspoons after work, mcdonalds, night bus, pass out, repeat. It makes me shudder to think about now. Also my sleep was horrendous, as was the weighing scales reading, my skin & mood. 

Now however, I am very good at sleeping, and have reversed all the 'eurgh's' from my 20's. It isn’t because my life is particularly stress-free. I run my own business, work long hours and get up early. And if anything, I’ve found the uncertainty and financial responsibility that comes with working for yourself considerably more stressful than the years I spent employed.

I also know I’m fortunate. I choose my own hours, no boss throwing extra spreadsheets into the inbox tray, no quarterly performance reviews... Those things absolutely make some healthy habits easier.

But I don’t think they’re the whole reason I sleep well.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed comes from the less glamorous things I do consistently: eating properly, moving my body, getting outside, watching when I have caffeine, holding boundaries, saying no and having familiar rituals that tell my brain the day is changing gear.

So, as we head into autumn and the evenings get darker again, I thought I’d put my own routine under the microscope.

Welcome to The Calm Diet.

And no, it’s not really a diet, 'diets' haven't been part of my life since 2017

It’s a day of feeding your body, brain and routine more of the things that can help you arrive at bedtime ready for rest.

6am: Better sleep starts when you wake up

My days start early.

Not because I subscribe to the idea that everyone needs to join the 5am club, take an ice bath and have built a multinational company before breakfast.

I simply like mornings.

One of the most useful things about an early start is consistency. Our sleep-wake cycle is influenced by our circadian rhythm, and regular wake and sleep times, alongside exposure to daylight, help give the body clearer cues about when it’s daytime and when it’s time to wind down.

You absolutely don’t need to wake up when I do. Some of you probably wake up earlier.

The useful bit is creating some consistency around the time you wake up.

Open the curtains. Get some daylight. Drink some water. Start the day.

Nothing expensive required.

7am: Eat for a steady day, not a rollercoaster

Breakfast for me is often overnight oats with fruit.

Again, overnight oats are not secretly tranquilliser in a Kilner jar.

What I’m interested in is starting the day properly fed rather than spending the morning ricocheting between hunger, caffeine and whatever biscuit happens to be nearest the laptop.

I tend to build meals around some combination of protein, fibre, fruit or vegetables and carbohydrates that actually keep me going. I also bulk cook/ prep so I don't mind myself with a valid reason to stray into Itsu.

Because when we’re talking about feeling calmer, I think we sometimes focus so intensely on what happens at bedtime that we forget about the preceding 15 hours.

A calmer evening is considerably harder when you’ve spent the day under-fuelled, over-caffeinated and running entirely on adrenaline & crisps.

Morning: Work hard without turning stress into the entire routine

This is probably the least Instagrammable part of my Calm Diet.

I work. A lot.

Some days I’m at my desk for long stretches, there are difficult decisions to make, money to think about, emails arriving and approximately 47 things that apparently all need doing immediately. HMRC throwing 5 figure curveballs.

I’m not interested in pretending the answer to stress is simply “be less busy.” Lockdown proved that doing less didn't magically make us a country of calm baby yoda's.

Most of us can’t abandon our responsibilities and wander through a meadow every time Outlook becomes disagreeable.

What we can do is notice the little things that make an already demanding day feel worse.

For me, that means eating lunch rather than forgetting it. Getting away from the screen occasionally. Going outside. Drinking water. And being conscious of how much caffeine I’m adding to a body that’s already perfectly capable of producing its own sense of urgency & cortisol.

A ten-minute walk still counts.

Lunch away from your desk still counts.

Standing outside with a cup of tea for five minutes still counts.

Wellness doesn’t have to become another job, and you don't have to be an alo clad 'pilates girlie'.

Lunchtime: What do I want my afternoon to feel like?

This is one of the biggest changes I’ve made in the way I think about relaxation.

I don’t only want to feel calm at bedtime.

Sometimes I want to feel calmer at 1pm.

Sometimes there’s a stressful meeting coming up. Sometimes the morning has been relentless. Sometimes I simply don’t want my next drink to push me further into go-go-go mode.

That’s one of the occasions when I’ll reach for Acqua - The Relaxation Blend⁠

The sparkling, botanical blood orange and juniper blend I created to help us Relax | Reset | Unwind. 

For me, that’s an important distinction.

Relaxation doesn’t have to mean sedation, bedtime or removing yourself from the world. Sometimes it’s simply choosing not to add more stimulation to an already stimulating day.

What’s inside the Relaxation Blend?

Acqua brings together five ingredients I wanted in my own relaxation ritual:

Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic botanical with a long history of traditional use and has become one of the most searched-for ingredients in modern stress and wellness conversations.

Valerian root has an equally long association with traditional relaxation and bedtime rituals.

L-tryptophan is an essential amino acid. Our bodies can’t make it themselves, and it forms part of the biological pathway the body uses to produce serotonin.

Vitamin B6 & Vitamin C support your nervous system & psychological wellbeing. Helping your body feel better equipped for the demands of a busy day.

They’re there alongside the botanical flavour of blood orange and juniper to make Acqua something I actually want to drink, because there’s not much point creating a daily ritual you don’t enjoy.

For me, an ice-cold Acqua with lunch or before a demanding afternoon is less about trying to magically remove stress and more about asking:

What would support the way I want to feel next?

Explore Acqua, The Relaxation Blend⁠

Late afternoon: Move the stress somewhere

I don’t always want to exercise.

There. Wellness-founder confession complete.

But I almost always feel better afterwards.

Movement is what counts.

A walk outside costs nothing. So does stretching on the living-room floor. Running, cycling, dancing around the kitchen to Nicki Minaj or finding a free workout online all count.

Exercise also gives me something psychologically useful: a line between working and not working.

I’ve spent the day using my brain. Now I use my body.

By the time I shower afterwards, something has shifted.

Dinner: So what does a “calm diet” actually look like?

Not lettuce. Or, at least, not exclusively lettuce.

The internet has a habit of making healthy eating look unnecessarily austere. But going to bed hungry because you’ve decided carbohydrates become contraband after 6pm isn’t my idea of wellness.

My dinners tend to be satisfying, colourful and fairly simple: a good source of protein, vegetables, herbs, carbohydrates and plenty of flavour.

As autumn arrives, that might mean roasted vegetables, chicken or fish, grains, rice or potatoes, greens, yoghurt-based sauces, nuts and seeds.

There are also nutrients worth getting through a varied diet. Magnesium is found in foods including nuts, seeds, whole grains and leafy greens, while tryptophan occurs naturally in protein-containing foods.

The point isn’t to assemble the scientifically perfect Sleep Dinner™ every evening.

It’s to eat well enough, and enough full stop, that your body isn’t still asking you to solve basic nutritional problems when you’re trying to wind down.

If you're looking for inspiration, have a look at our Soulful Recipes. 

8pm: The 'doing' part day has to end somewhere

This might be the most important part of my routine. At some point, I stop.

The social media apps close. The lighting changes. I do my skincare. I cook. I watch something. I make the space around me feel different from the place where I’ve spent the day working.

Especially as September turns into autumn, there’s something lovely about allowing darker evenings to become a cue to come home rather than another reason to squeeze more productivity out of the day.

Your version doesn’t need candles, a beautiful bathroom or an elaborate routine.

The principle is simply to create a recognisable transition.

'Doing' has finished. 'Resting' can begin.

9pm: Swap the can for the kettle

Later in the evening, my ritual changes again.

This is when I love tea.

Not because making tea is a revolutionary sleep biohack, but because the ritual itself asks you to slow down.

Boil the kettle. Measure the leaves. Let them steep. Sit down. Hold something warm.

Our Relaxation Loose Leaf Tea⁠ was created for exactly this slower part of the evening.

Where Acqua fits beautifully into my daytime routine, at lunch or before a demanding afternoon, the Relaxation Tea belongs to that later ritual when there’s nowhere else I need to be.

And I think that’s something we’ve lost slightly in our obsession with wellness optimisation.

Sometimes a ritual doesn’t need to do very much.

Sometimes its value is that you stop doing.

10pm: Make good sleep boring

I don’t have an elaborate 17-step sleep protocol.

My room is comfortable. My evenings generally become less stimulating as bedtime approaches. My routine is familiar. I reflect, I journal. And because I wake early, I’m usually genuinely ready to sleep.

I think that’s part of why it works.

The goal isn’t to become brilliant at sleeping. It’s to stop constantly getting in its way.

The Calm Diet isn’t really a diet

I know some parts of my lifestyle make healthy habits easier.

But I also know what it’s like to work long hours, carry financial uncertainty, have too much on my mind and feel responsible for something that doesn’t conveniently switch itself off at 5pm.

The habits that seem to help me most aren’t necessarily the expensive ones.

They’re the repeatable ones.

Eat properly.

Get some daylight.

Move your body.

Notice how much caffeine you’re drinking.

Give yourself something different to reach for when you don’t want another stimulant.

Create a point at which work ends.

Make an evening ritual familiar enough that your body begins to recognise it.

And sleep.

That’s The Calm Diet.

Not a prescription for the perfect wellness life.

Just a collection of small choices that make mine feel considerably better.

And if you’re reading this at the beginning of autumn, perhaps this is the perfect time to create your own version.

Build your relaxation ritual

For the daytime reset: Acqua -The Relaxation Blend⁠

For the evening wind-down: Relaxation Loose Leaf Tea⁠

Before bed: Daily Reflection Journal

Suggested reads

If you’d like to go deeper into some of the ingredients and ideas mentioned above:

Ashwagandha vs Reishi: Benefits, Differences & Can You Take Them Together?⁠

Reishi vs Ashwagandha: Which One Actually Helps Stress, Sleep & Cortisol Control?⁠

Beyond CBD: Why Relaxation Rituals Are Evolving⁠

That's all for now!

I hope this helps,

Eirian x