In our Sleeping With… series, we ask people from different career paths, backgrounds, and stages of life how they make sleep magic happen.

Christy Turlington Burns is a supermodel, mother, and founder of Every Mother Counts, an organization working to better maternal health everywhere. In 1988 she starred in the original Calvin Klein Eternity campaign, and she’s now reprising her role for the brand’s latest line of Eternity fragrances, alongside her husband, actor and director Edward Burns.

“I never imagined that my first career was going to last very long, and so I did a lot of trying to understand what my interests were, and where did I feel the most passion,” Turlington Burns tells SELF. “I started doing some advocacy work pretty early on in my career, but by the time I became a mom and then had a postpartum complication with my daughter's birth, it just became really clear that [maternal health care] is something that not only is needed, but I feel really passionate about.” Turlington Burns experienced life-threatening postpartum hemorrhaging after giving birth to her daughter in 2003. Though her doctors were able to manage her condition, the shaking experience was enough to encourage Turlington Burns to go back to school, where she received a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University. In 2010 she started Every Mother Counts.

Turlington Burns has spent the pandemic between her family’s home in Long Island and their home in New York City, where she focuses mostly on her advocacy work and spending time with her teenage children. For Turlington Burns, proper rest—especially right now—involves moving her body, getting outside during the day, and making sure her kids are all right. “I wouldn’t say I’m super strict about any ritual,” she says of her minimalist bedtime routine. For more on how the supermodel turned activist gets the rest she needs, read our full interview below.

At the end of the night, I walk my dogs around the neighborhood and settle them in.

I feel like having a pet forces you to go outside and forces you to slow down; it forces you to take breaks during the day. It's just a good reminder to take those opportunities whenever we have the chance.

Then I brush my teeth, wash my face, and get into bed. Sometimes we'll watch a program before going to bed. I try not to watch any news or anything that's negative or too stimulating. And sometimes I'll read before bed, but not always. Then I set my alarm. That's kind of it.

I try to go to sleep somewhere close to 11.

My kids are now teenagers, so it's one of those things where when they go to sleep dictates when I go to sleep. If they're out for some reason, I don’t go to sleep before they're home, or if they're just up doing whatever, I'd rather know that everyone's in their room and everyone is going to bed before I can really, truly relax.

I really like a super-dark space, so I have blackout shades in my bedroom. That is really important for a deep sleep for me.

If I can see the light through blinds or through shades or whatever, I have a really hard time. I also have a small fan, which seems sort of weird because I use it even in the winter. I also like to have a weighted blanket or weighted duvet, and so it's trying to get the right climate where you feel cool enough but you also have the comfort of a heavy weight on you.

I wouldn’t say I’m super strict about any ritual.

Sometimes I run at the end of the day versus the morning only because I'm not really a morning person. In the summer when it was super hot, I would just wait until the end of the day to exercise and that was a nice break to transition to the next part of the evening. Then I would come back and make dinner and be able to be present and not be carrying my workday or other anxieties into the evening.

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