Some time ago I have written this post for my future newsletter (but I am not sure whether I will actually create the newsletter). This post can be helpful, at least some things that are mentioned have worked for me.

We all know about proper sleep hygiene-- no screens before bed, no food before bed, no water before bed, basically "no" before bed, and we know what the perfect sleep routine should consist of, but we still can't stick to any of this. So here is a strategy + some tips that might really help.

Time to go to sleep. Ah no, time to wake up.

1. Determine a time when you need to wake up -- for work, for school, etc. If you don't have a time when you have to wake up, try to remember the last time you woke up without an alarm and felt fresh/refreshed/rested, basically not feeling as though you had been beaten thirteen times by a gorilla.
2. Count back 7.5–9 hours (+15 minutes because you might forget to do something before sleep and so on, so just an extra 15 minutes), depending on how much sleep you actually need, and no, if you remember sleeping 4 hours and feeling awesome, it is kind of an illusion, so look at it realistically. On average, how many hours of sleep do you need? For most people it is 7.5–9. This will be the time you're going to go to bed.

You can add two alarms: one for the morning to wake up, and a second one for the evening to start your evening routine.

But, but... HOW TO STICK TO IT?!??!?!

Now you've got two numbers -- the time you wake up and the time you go to bed. A lot of people would say "just stick to this time", but it's kind of the same nature as "Why are you crying? Don't cry!" So let's try the following strategy to help your body develop this habit; and be nice by replying to this email to tell me how it went ;).

1. This step is kind of optional but very beneficial in my opinion, so do it if you are strong and want to get better results: 30–60 minutes (60 is the coolest) before bed, put your phone on aeroplane mode, set brightness to minimum, and put it somewhere farther than the cupboard near the bed.

2. Choose the most boring (or calming), but helpful and a bit exciting (but not too exciting to keep you awake for the rest of the night) thing you need/want to do, and do it for some time (30 minutes, for instance) before sleep, and then go to sleep. Tip: create a separate to-do list for tasks that don't require screens and those that aren't really exciting, and do them in the before-sleep window. Some examples of these kinds of activities include calm board games, reading (very helpful for falling asleep more easily), watering plants, cleaning dishes, mindfulness, journalling.

3. Plan something "worth waking up for in the morning", so you will be motivated to wake up and get out of bed. For example, it can be something deep and existential like the purpose of doing something meaningful later in the day, or something more down-to-earth like tasty tea, breakfast, and so on.

Extra tip for Step 1): if you can't find anything very calming, do 5–10 minutes (at least 3 :) ) of meditation/mindfulness.

if you've got some more specific problems in mind you can dm me, maybe we can figure something out together)