This was written January 02, 2025
Introduction
As mentioned in a recent update, I’m planning work on myself through the implementation of better and healthier habits. There are many aspects to consider: how to track and complete tasks and errands, finding ways to consistently study and work on projects despite a more constrained schedule, having a better diet, doing more exercise, etc…
But in order to maximize my chances of success, I should prioritize what’s most critical. In this case, what’s more important than sleep? If you don’t sleep well, it impacts everything else. Energy is low, concentration is poor, motivation is lackluster, even health starts suffering. This is why I plan to first attempt to improve my sleep.
Improving my sleep
So what’s the plan? Well, there are a few avenues I can explore. The main areas I can think of are:
- Sleep Schedule/Consistency
- Sleep Hygiene
- Sleep Quality
- Sunday: Before 10pm
- Monday: Before 10pm
- Tuesday: Before 11pm
- Wednesday: Before 11pm
- Thursday: Before 11pm
- Friday: Before 11pm
Sleep Schedule
While sleep quality is harder to approach in some instances (E.g.: If it’s a health issue, or if I need to purchase items), there are still many things I can do to improve my sleep.
Obviously, the first thing I can control is my sleeping schedule and its consistency. Currently, I’m often rather lazy when it comes to bed time, often procrastinating ad-nauseum before heading to bed, despite knowing what would be best for myself. Sometimes it takes the form of idling watching videos or shows, sometimes in the form of chatting with others, and sometimes it’s simply wanting to relax a bit after work. But most of it stems from a lack of discipline on my part. Consequently, I should institute a clearly defined sleep schedule I abide by. According to my work constraints (and the current iteration of my schedule), I plan on having the following bedtimes:
But what about Saturday? Well…I sometimes plan late-night events with friend in North America, since that’s usually the most sensible time (due to the time differences). Thus, it might be a bit complicated to have a reasonable bedtime on Saturday. However, if I notice that it negatively impacts the rest of my week, I’ll adapt accordingly.
Two additional comments. First, I do not plan to have fixed wake-up times for now. The most important thing for me is to go to sleep at a reasonable time and hopefully get enough sleep, depending on what my body craves. Moreover, it’s hard to plan for nightly disruptions (like needing to use the restroom). But once I have a more regular sleeping schedule, I’m sure my body will adapt and I’ll be able to plan accordingly.
Next, while I state I want to go to sleep by a specified time, e.g.: “Before 10pm”, my goal is to get to bed 30 minutes ahead of schedule, yet have a margin of error.
Sleep Hygiene
Other than my sleep schedule, I could also work on my sleep hygiene. First, one thing I believe plagues most people nowadays is phone usage in bed. I’ve gradually started away while charging it at night, making it inaccessible, although I’m not always too disciplined about it. Beyond that, I also have the terrible habit of putting on a tv show when I go to bed. This is in part to drown out my own thoughts, which tend to spiral while I’m trying to sleep. I will thus attempt to remove those bad habits from my life. For the phone, the approach is fairly self-evident, and simply requires discipline. As for television, it actually feels less straightforward. I often worry about changing that habit, especially when I have something important the next day (e.g.: an exam). Indeed, I worry it might negatively impact my sleep and that I might simply be unable to fall asleep.
Thus, I think I might want to take a gradual approach. In a first step, I would swap out television for music (possibly classical music, or at least something relaxing). Obviously, I’ll want to add a sleep timer to it so it doesn’t go on all night. Eventually, if this transition goes smoothly, I can finally move on to a completely silent approach…unless my environment turns out to be too noisy (e.g.: Neighbors or street noises).
Conclusion
Well, here’s the beginning of my new journey towards self-improvement. As a first step, I intend on improving my sleep. I also plan to document this in a “journal” format, logging the times I go to sleep, along with whether I relied on television or not. I will then try to share my results here. If possible, I’ll try to log my wake-up times, and how tired I feel during the day, although I can’t make guarantees on this.
On this note, I hope you tune in next time, and that I’m more refreshed from better sleep! Hopefully this also makes you reflect on your own habits and how you might want to improve upon them. Have a nice one everyone! Take care!