Go to Bed Early With a Deal With Yourself
I’ve been looking for a way to go to bed early for years and finally found a trick that works for me. I just need to treat myself like a child and make a deal that I know will almost always work in my favor.
I am one of those people who feel like I never have enough time during the day to do whatever I want to do. It’s not that I’m very busy, I’m just hungry for experiences. I understand very well how short life can be, and I can’t stand the thought of not making it to everything on my ever-growing list. There is always a little more work I would like to do, more books I want to read, more games to play, and even more things I want to watch on Netflix. Every night, instead of going to bed at a decent hour, I burned midnight oil, chipping off endlessly.
But sleep is important to your mind and health, and I haven’t been getting enough, especially with my increasing workouts. I thought the answer would be earlier, when I go to bed, but I knew that I would have to deceive myself in order to achieve any success. Here’s what I did:
At the first sign of sleepiness at night, I prepared for bed and made a deal with myself, for example: “I am flying and will honestly try to sleep 15 minutes. If I can’t sleep in 15 minutes, I can [insert what you want to do]. “
This tactic is similar to the “ work on a task for five minutes ” approach to counter procrastination. If you complete the task within five minutes, you will likely enter the workflow and eventually complete the task. And if you’re comfortable in bed with the lights off for 15 minutes, you’re likely to fall asleep before your time is up. This helps me avoid the second breath I usually get when I try to suppress the first wave of sleepiness. Your experience may differ from this trick, but it almost always works for me.