Two hours to close the day with the scent of a Korean bamboo forest

Every culture has its own way of crossing from day into night. In Japan, people bathe in the evening rather than the morning, soaking away the day before bed. In India, Ayurveda recommends padabhyanga, a slow massage of the feet with warm oil before sleep. And in Korea, where I grew up, the ritual begins at the front door. We take our shoes off the moment we step inside and walk barefoot at home, so the day stays at the entrance with our shoes. On winter nights, we would lay our blankets on the araetmok, the warmest spot of the ondol floor, and fall asleep as our cold bodies slowly thawed. (Ondol is Korea's traditional underfloor heating: the fire from the kitchen stove once warmed the stones beneath the room. It may be why Koreans still love a warm floor so much.) As a child, this was simply how we lived. Looking back, it was a small ritual: leave the day behind, warm the body, and let the night come.

By Soyoung Cho | October 3, 2026

—

The truth is, I am a morning person. I love starting the day with an early workout, and a quiet morning with a cup of green tea is the most precious part of my day. But at some point I realized that a good morning is not made in the morning. It begins the night before, with how we close the day. On my busiest days, my body was exhausted but my mind would not switch off, and I would lie in bed scrolling on my phone until I drifted off. The morning after those nights always felt heavy.

So at Leverden, we started thinking less about how to fall asleep and more about how to close the day. The result is The Night Ritual, a two-hour ritual that begins well before you get into bed.

Sleep comes as your body cools

Our core body temperature rises and falls a little throughout the day, then begins to drop slowly in the evening. Sleep arrives most naturally on that downward slope. The interesting part is that we can help it along. When you soak in warm water an hour or two before bed, your warmed body releases heat afterwards and your temperature falls more smoothly. (In 2019, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin combined the results of many sleep studies and found that a warm bath of around 40°C, or 104°F, taken one to two hours before bed helped people fall asleep faster.)

Perhaps that is why a warm ondol floor made such a sweet bed, and why the Japanese bathe at night. Old wisdom seems to have known all along that warming the body and then letting it cool is the way to good sleep. The Night Ritual simply turns that idea into two hours: dim the light, warm the body, and let it cool.

—

The two-hour ritual

Two hours before bed: dim the lights, light the candle

Turn the lights in your living room and bedroom down a step or two, and light your Leverden Bamboo Forest candle. When a small flame replaces the overhead light, the body understands that night has come. I call this the moment I switch off the day. Striking the match and lighting the wick takes only a few seconds, yet it settles my mind every time.

Ninety minutes before bed: warm the body

Soak for 10 to 15 minutes in water around 40°C (104°F). If you don't have a bathtub, a warm shower or a foot bath works too. Wash the day away with the Bamboo Forest Charcoal Detox Bar. After a hard workout, I add a handful of Amethyst Ki Bath Soak to the tub. A light sweat in water infused with bamboo salt leaves my body feeling noticeably lighter. Keep it warm and keep it short: water that is too hot, or a bath that runs too long, wakes the body up instead.

After the bath: let your body cool

Your warmed body will give off heat little by little until bedtime. Rest in a cool room, stretch gently, and slow your breathing. Breathe in slowly, and let each breath out last a little longer than the breath in. The candle is still burning, and the room is filled with the soft scent of the bamboo forest. While my skin is still a little damp, I smooth on the Bamboo Forest Body Lotion, working slowly from my neck to my shoulders and down to my calves. This is also when I play the Bamboo Forest meditation on the Leverden website. Matching my breath to the sound of bamboo leaves in the wind, I settle much faster than I expect.

Lights out: blow out the candle

Finally, recall three things you were grateful for today. They don't have to be big: a warm cup of tea at lunch, a message from an old friend, the sunset on the way home. Then blow out the candle and leave your phone outside the bedroom. The first few times, this last step is the hardest. But try it once or twice and you will notice how quiet and spacious a bedroom feels without a screen.

—

Why a bamboo forest?

The Bamboo Forest Collection that accompanies The Night Ritual was Leverden's very first collection, created as an homage to Korea. At its heart is jukyeom, Korean bamboo salt. Sea salt is packed into bamboo stems and roasted at high temperatures again and again. Ours is roasted by a jukyeom master in Yeongwol, in Korea's Gangwon Province. (Jukyeom is said to have first been used in Korean monasteries, in rituals to bring the body back into balance. It is hard to imagine an ingredient better suited to a ritual before sleep.)

The scent was created by master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel. A fresh green note of dewy bamboo sap meets a touch of salt, while sage and oakmoss gently ease tension. Light the candle and close your eyes, and you could be standing in a bamboo forest at night, the leaves rustling each time the wind passes. Every time I breathe it in, the noise in my head drops by a tone.

—

Tonight, just one thing

Two hours may sound like a lot. But The Night Ritual is not about adding more to your evening; it is about putting things down, one at a time. You don't need to do every step at once. Tonight, start by dimming the lights a little earlier and lighting one candle. Tomorrow, add the bath. The day after, add your three things.

Like taking off your shoes at the door, a good night is made of small habits. I hope these small habits add up to deeper sleep and lighter mornings. Tonight, may your day close slowly, in the scent of a bamboo forest.

Listen to the Bamboo Forest meditation alongside tonight's ritual on the Leverden website. → Listen to the Bamboo Forest meditation