In our Sleeping With… series, we speak to people from different career paths, backgrounds, and stages of life to find out how they make sleep magic happen.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is 1 in 15,000—at least when it came to landing her first acting gig. When Mindy Kaling put out an open casting call for the lead in her new teen drama, Never Have I Ever, 15,000 people auditioned. Ramakrishnan—then 17, from Mississauga, Canada, with no previous acting credits to her name—came out on top, scoring the role of Devi Vishwakumar.
Never Have I Ever was released on Netflix on April 27, just over a month into the worldwide pandemic shutdown. The series was a hit—Netflix recently reported that it was viewed by more than 40 million households globally within four weeks. In July it was officially renewed for a second season.
But don’t be fooled by Ramakrishnan’s wave of success. She, now 18, wants you to know that she’s just your average teenager. “Ever since March, I’ve been quarantining with my family in my home,” Ramakrishnan tells SELF. “I got my mom, I got my dad, my grandma, my grandpa, my brother, my dog. It’s a full house. My entire life, I’ve grown up in Mississauga, and going for the audition [for Never Have I Ever] was actually the first trip I’ve ever taken down there [to L.A.]. That was the longest time I’ve ever been away from home.”
SELF spoke to Ramakrishnan, who recently partnered with Tazo tea, about her bedtime routine while quarantining at home with her family. Read below for the skin-care she learned from her mother, late nights with Grandma, and how high school taught her the value of an all-nighter.
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Before bed, I don’t really like to hang out in my bedroom so much by myself because I don’t like to be alone.
I tend to actually hang out downstairs with my family. I’d rather be on my computer downstairs than just up in my room alone, if that makes sense. My whole bedroom vibe is basically a storage space of all of my stuff in an organized yet slightly chaotic mess.
Honestly, my whole family, including my grandma, stays up pretty late.
Sometimes [my grandma] will stay up until 1:00. I think I slowly converted my family into night owls with me. Except for my dad—my dad’s a morning person, so we all gang up on him. That’s a “him problem.” Recently we started playing Mario Party before we go to bed. I get very competitive, so it’s a good way to get out all of the last energy you have. I win, of course. Let’s be real. My grandma just watches, but she supports.
At night I also like to have a cup of tea—I really like the Tazo Energize blend. I’m a night owl and tend to get a lot of my best and most creative work done after midnight, so that helps me with that process. I also am a huge fan of their Earl Grey tea.
If it’s a normal night, then I probably don’t have makeup on because I try not to use too much makeup day after day, because I don’t want to break out.
But let’s say I am, just to spice it up. I go in with a bunch of toners and makeup removers, because I absolutely hate myself if I fall asleep with my makeup on, which admittedly has happened before. I think I have done that more in quarantine than I have in my entire life. I am quite ashamed about that, but it is what it is. I am human.
I go in with my Neutrogena face wipes—I really like those. They really work, and they’re nice. Then I keep it pretty simple when I wash my face. I just use water—good old water—and some regular Olay face soap. It works for me. And then I finish up with some toner and whatnot. That’s pretty much it for cleaning off my face.
I do always try to use some vitamin E cream at the end of the night, just to keep it hydrated, because we don’t like that dry skin. You gotta keep moisturized. And of course going in on my entire body, dousing it with Aveeno cream for the night to stay hydrated. Because if I don’t, my family will roast me for having ashy legs.
My mom and my grandma really drive into both me and my brother that we take care of our body and take care of our skin.
Whenever I don’t, [my mom] always looms it over me, like, “I’ve taken care of your skin for so long when you were a child. Your skin was perfect, and now you’re just going to throw it away!” And I’m like, Ah, okay! Alright! I’ll fix it! My bad! Definitely owe it to my mom to make sure that I stay on top of my health.
Then there’s lots of going through TikTok as I try to go to sleep.
Which is a very bad habit, I learned. You should apparently not be on your phone before you go to bed. Yikes, big yikes. But, you know, I’m not a perfect human being. I scroll through TikTok or watch Netflix on my phone as I go to bed. I just finished Avatar the Last Airbender, that was a really emotional end. I jumped on the hype train for that. And now I have to find a new show.
I have this awesome Saje peppermint oil, and you can use it for headaches. You put it on the temples of your head. So whenever I have a bad headache and the day’s been stressful and I just have a lot on my mind—a lot of anxiety or work filling up my brain—I put a little bit of that on my temples just to chillax. It really does help me sleep.
My dog, Melody, sleeps on my bed. It didn’t happen like that at first.
Before, she used to sleep on the ground, and then she used to sleep at the bottom of my bed. Now she sleeps beside me and has her own pillow. She’s a labradoodle—she’s a little stupid, but we still love her. I make sure Melody has her head elevated while she sleeps because she doesn’t like to sleep with her head not elevated. She’s so spoiled.
I remember my sleep schedule being all over the place [in high school] because I would have my after-school theater shows, so I would perform late at night and come home even later.
Then I would eat my dinner really late, and then have to still unwind and chill and then fall asleep. But also with working on my portfolios for university—I would stay up for that. That, I think, is what really solidified my night owl self and my ability to pull an all-nighter but also have the ability to sleep for a whole day straight, because I have done that. I gotta shout out all the high school kids who just graduated this year for graduating under quarantine and everything that’s going on.
When I go to sleep depends. My schedule really switches up.
I feel like I don’t have a sense of a body clock at times, but if I need to keep a strict schedule of waking up early in the morning, or I guess relatively early, then I would do that. I know for a fact that if I just let myself do what I want without having to worry about any commitment, I’ll end up staying up until 6:30 in the morning and say hi to the birds as they start waking up and then just go to bed.
It’s pretty late, but then you get used to it. You just let it happen. It’s not like I’m just staying up to do fun things or to chill. I actually feel like I work best at night. My brain is the most alert at night, and I feel like I’m also my most creative after 12 a.m. It was a thing for me even in high school. In high school, I would always try to do my creative assignments after 12 a.m, just because I would work better and faster.
Related links:
Lili Reinhart’s Bedtime Routine: Pimple-Popping Videos, Prayer, and the Occasional Bath
My Bedtime Routine: Extreme Skin Care, ‘The Kissing Booth,’ and Glennon Doyle
My Bedtime Routine: Arielle Vandenberg, Host of ‘Love Island’