My Bedtime Routine: Sierra Teller Ornelas, TV Comedy Writer

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

You might not recognize Sierra Teller Ornelas by name yet, but chances are she’s made you laugh before. The Navajo and Mexican-American TV writer has helped craft some of the wittiest and most beloved comedies in recent years, like Superstore, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Happy Endings. Ornelas’s newest show, Rutherford Falls, may be the fullest expression of her voice yet. She is cocreator, showrunner, writer, and executive producer of the fresh and funny sitcom—which grapples with serious themes and is a revelation for Indigenous representation in TV.

Rutherford Falls, which premiered on Peacock in April, features Indigenous actors (like colead Jana Schmieding) playing well-drawn characters, thanks to Ornelas and the several other Native voices she made sure were in the (virtual) writers room. Set in a small town that borders a Native American reservation, the smart series takes on the legacy of colonialism and the modern-day injustices that Indigenous peoples face—as well as the largely fictional stories that nice white Americans (represented here by star and cocreator Ed Helms) like to tell themselves about those travesties.

Working on a TV show is an incredibly fun and creative job, Ornelas tells SELF, but can be high-stress and involve long hours, especially during the “on” season. When she hops on a Zoom, Ornelas is sitting in her home office surrounded by the scented candles and beauty products that help her cultivate a peaceful work environment, from at home to on set. “I’m very big on making your space feel relaxing as much as you can, so I try to bring those elements to wherever I’m working,” Ornelas says. “I even used to garden in my office. When I was on staff on a very stressful show, I would propagate succulents in my window.”

The nature of Ornelas’s work makes keeping up a consistent daily routine year-round pretty tricky. “TV is seasonal, so the weeks that we’re in editing or there’s rewrites from the table read, the routine goes out the window and you’re just trying to get it done,” Ornelas explains. But with season one of Rutherford Falls on air, Ornelas is indulging in a long break from the show by taking it a little easier, working on other projects, and enjoying the consistency of her schedule.

Ornelas walked SELF through her current bedtime routine, which involves creating calming vibes in her bathroom and bedroom, indulging in some self-care with the help of her favorite Native-made products, and taking a little time for herself and her husband after they put their son to bed. “And then, God willing, if we get a season two, my work schedule will ramp up again,” Ornelas says. “So it just depends.” Here, she lays out her bedtime routine.

My son is going to be 5, and my night doesn’t really start until he goes to sleep.

They say that kids need consistency, so by giving our son that consistency, we can also kind of gauge what we’ll do in the evening. I struggle with self-care, and I struggle with working too much, so we always make sure we’re there for his bedtime. It’s actually pretty therapeutic. I’ll have to wash his face and brush his teeth and get him ready—so I’ll at least always wash my face and brush my teeth at night when he’s doing that, so I coincide with that little bit of self-care. And then we’ll lay with him.

Some days putting him to bed is not meditative at all—we’re chasing him and hog-tying him into bed. Sometimes it’s kind of soothing. My husband and I switch off, so on the days that I don’t put him to bed, it will be a time I get by myself. So we give that to each other.

I talk to my mom every night on FaceTime now.

My mom had COVID last year, and when that happened, we got much closer. Sometimes it’s like a five-minute FaceTime, or sometimes it’s like an hour, depending on what kind of days we had. Just to check in on how she’s doing. It’s really nice to do.

There’s some nights I do nothing—I don’t want to make it sound like I’m like a self-care queen, because I so am not.

I start at around 8:30. I start with taking off my makeup, if I had Zoom meetings or things to do. I want to shout out Cheekbone Beauty. I love their makeup, and I love how easy it is to take off my face! It’s a Native-owned makeup company. I got one of their starter kits, and I just kept buying and buying. It’s really great stuff, and they have great options for different skin tones.

Then I will use rosewater. I really like this one from Quw’utsun’ Made, a Native-made company. It’s a mixture of rosewater and aloe. I don’t know what nettle is, but it just makes my face feel very clean and very nice.

I use a mixture of stuff you can buy at Target and stuff you can buy at nicer places.

My face can’t handle a lot of products, but as I’m aging I’m adding more layers. I will either use this Tatcha Luminous Eye Serum, or this Pixi Retinol Eye Cream. My splurge purchase is this SK II Essence. I put it in a spray bottle and use just one spray to cover my face. And then I love this CosRx mucin power essence. It’s a Korean product that’s snail serum. Then I’ll do a face oil. My face can’t handle a lot of oils, so I mix it up. I like this Herbivore face oil that smells really good, or I will do this C.E.O. Glow Sunday Riley Vitamin C Oil.

I kept buying expensive retinols, but I don’t do the same regimen every night, or there will be a week where I just don’t do anything—and some of these expensive products kind of separate over time. So I bought these little RoC Retinol Capsules from Target. I’ve found it works really well.

Then I top it all off with a Tatcha Water Cream, which is very light. And I’ll do a rose quartz roller.

Sometimes if I have time, I love taking a really long, super-hot bath.

Before the pandemic I loved Korean spas and a hot tub—I would go there to write sometimes. I try to recreate a little bit of that in my bathroom with candles and stuff. I’ll watch episodes of Insecure on my phone, or just get into a YouTube hole. I really like this company you can find in Silver Lake called Clover. They have really great bath salts, candles, and scents. [Editor’s note: Self-care products are not currently available from the company online.]

I have this amazing candle that I love by b.Yellowtail called Good Medicine, which smells like sage and other scents. The maker is actually a Northern Cheyenne/Crow clothing designer. I would love to shout out: Please don’t buy white sage or palo santo. I would push people to please buy b.Yellowtail candles and not take actual medicine from Indigenous people. [Editor’s note: There are some unethical and unsustainable practices often involved in the commercial sourcing of palo santo and white sage—including the poaching of wild plants, which threatens supplies for Indigenous communities and could lead to endangerment.]

But it’s cool—I’ve also been seeing a bunch of really interesting European-based bundles based on Irish cultures and stuff, using different types of herbs. There are really awesome bundles made out of juniper or rosemary or lavender that you can find on Etsy.

I have body butters from this amazing Native beader who makes these incredible pieces of beadwork.

Her brand is Aonehc Aonehc. I wasn’t able to have a birthday party, so I was like, “I’m buying these expensive earrings.” She takes preorders, and I told her, “Take as long as you need”—my mom is a Native artist, and I always hated when people would rush her. And because I said that when I think she needed to hear it, she sent me all of these body butters. And now I swear by them. It makes your skin so soft and it absorbs so quickly, so it doesn’t make your skin feel greasy.

If my husband is busy downstairs, I will try to do videos by Justin Agustin. 

They’re beginner workouts, and it’s basically what I feel like the Golden Girls would do if there was an episode about working out. I found him on Instagram. He’s great, very nonjudgmental, which I feel is what I need right now. I love it because it’s very low impact, a lot of stretching. So it doesn’t make me stay awake late at night, but it’s a nice way to get my body moving and feeling good. Especially if I’m about to take a bath or about to go to sleep, it will help stretch me out.

I do this awesome meditation my therapist suggested.

I’m very much about normalizing BIPOC people being in therapy. My therapist suggested Meditation Minis With Chel Hamilton. She’s amazing. I have a really hard time meditating for long stretches of time, but these are like 10 minutes. Whenever I can sit and do them, I always sleep better. Her voice is so soothing. There are some for anxiety, some for sleeping. I have a hard time sleeping, but I’m getting better at it.

Then I’ll usually just lie in bed and be on my phone. Sometimes I’ll have to still work and answer emails, so that’s why lowering the lights, lighting a candle, and being moisturized feels good and has a little bit of a calming effect.

My husband will come in and we’ll download about the day, or talk about what our son did when we weren’t around.

We have this app on our phones called White Noise that my husband and I will both use. There’s all these different types—I like the pink noise one. And so it’s like a cacophony of noise that just kind of puts us to sleep. We didn’t start using it until it helped put our son to sleep as a baby and then we were like, “Oh I guess we need this.” He’s teaching us self-care.

Becoming a parent, I think it’s like your time becomes a little more precious.

I either don’t waste it as much, or I don’t feel guilty wasting it. Because I’m like, I get to do what I want in these two hours that are my own.

And I always try to find a moment to do a little something for myself. I come from a long line of very hard-working ladies who put themselves through a lot and did a lot for other people, so one of my favorite things is to send self-care gifts to my mom and my aunties. So I’m trying to remember to do that for myself as I’ve become a mom.