My 9-Step Evening Protocol for More Happiness and Better Sleep

Want to make your own evening protocol? Download Arthur’s guide to help you get started: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/evening-protocols. 

Most of us know how important it is to start the day well, but ending it well is what sets up your morning for success. A few weeks ago, I shared my 6-step morning protocol for managing mood and maximizing creativity. This week, I share its companion: my evening protocol.

In this episode, I walk through 9 science-based steps for ending the day with calm and contentment, from simple habits that prepare the body for rest to small rituals that strengthen love, gratitude, and peace of mind. Just like the morning routine, these habits are meant to serve you, not the other way around. This isn’t about perfection, but about inviting a state of surrender that allows you to end the day with gratitude, wake up fully rested, and begin another more productive and happier day.

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Referenced:

• How to Build a Life

• The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life

• My 6-Step Morning Protocol for a Better Day

• Relationship between food intake and sleep pattern in healthy individuals

• Alcohol and sleep-related problems

• Body metabolizes caffeine slower as you age

• Is a “Sweet Tooth” Genetic?

• Relationship between added sugar intake and sleep quality among university students

• Circadian entrainment to the natural light–dark cycle across seasons and the weekend

• Mindpump Podcast

• Walking to health

• Ben Bikman’s website

•  Dose-response relationship between evening exercise and sleep

• Acute hyperglycemia alters mood state and impairs cognitive performance in people with type 2 diabetes

• Assessing clinical trial eligibility with logic expression queries (BYU Scholars Archive)

• Oxytocin increases eye contact during a real-time, naturalistic social interaction in males with and without autism

• Dr. Rhonda Patrick’s podcast

• Current evidence on common dietary supplements for improving sleep quality

• Safety of higher doses of melatonin in adults: A systematic review

• Concerning findings on melatonin content in over-the-counter supplements

• Effects of evening smartphone use on sleep and declarative memory consolidation

• 5 Habits for Healthier Phone Use

• Cal Newport’s podcasts

• Effectiveness of trans-theoretical model-based health education intervention in adults with metabolic syndrome

• Sleeping hours: What is the ideal number and how does age impact this?

•   A review of the environmental parameters necessary for an optimal sleep environment

•  Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human–dog bonds

• The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary Findings

• Memory for semantically related and unrelated declarative information: The benefit of sleep, the cost of wake

• A study of the effects of four reading styles on college students’ mental health and quality of life

• Melatonin against aging: Could we stimulate melatonin secretion through Tahajjud?

• Surrendering to thrive: Evaluating the psychometric properties of the State of Surrender scale

• Panas Quiz