Dear keeper of late-night tension,

Before you surrender to your pillow, your muscles like to file one last complaint: a full day of screens, sitting, and stress with no proper goodbye. A few slow stretches — neck, shoulders, hips — can cue your body to shift from “fight emails” to “rest and digest,” activating the calmer side of your nervous system and helping you fall asleep more easily.

Here’s a small secret worth knowing: static stretching has been shown to trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, lowering stress hormones and increasing that heavy-limbed, pleasantly-sleepy feeling many people mistake for “just being tired.” Think of it as passing a discreet note to your brain that reads, “The day is over. You may relax now.”

Try these stretches tonight — one quiet sequence, five unhurried breaths at a time.

Ever on the side of joints that prefer sighs over stiffness,
Ms. Clara Whitmore